Percy Jackson's Myth: The Lightning Thief
by peasantly-surprised
Summary: Percy, Annabeth, Grover, the Stolls, Katie, Thalia, Nico, Clarisse, and Chris read the first book together. This is an example of what EVERYBODY does for this type of fanfic...no offense. I'm gonna do my version after this one. Rated 'cause I'm paranoid!
1. Chapter One: the Myth

A/N This is going to be in third person point of view so you guys can hear everyone's thoughts. Also this is just an example of what people usually do for this kind of stuff. Enjoy!

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><p><strong>CHAPTER ONE: THE MYTH<strong>

Try and picture it in your mind: Camp Half-Blood on a lazy Labor Day weekend, a couple of weeks after the Titan War. Dryads are running through the woods; satyrs are trotting around; camper going about their activities—just a regular day, right? Wrong!

If you were to take a walk through the woods, you'd find a small path leading to a clearing. In fact, it looks almost exactly like the Council of Cloven Elders' grove. The only difference: it's now the meeting place of Percy Jackson and his friends.

Those among the group are Annabeth, Grover, Nico, Thalia, Katie Gardener, the Stolls, Clarisse, Chris, and, of course, Percy, They were all called here by Rachel Elizabeth Dare (A/N I love calling her that!), the camp's new Oracle, for big news.

"So," Percy said, putting his arm around Annabeth. "What do you guys think Rachel called us down here for?"

Katie shrugged. "I have no clue. All she told me was to hurry down to the clearing and something else . . . some big announcement?"

"Well, she batter make it quick," Thalia grumbled. "Lady Artemis will be annoyed if I don't hurry back."

Annabeth frowned, hurt. "You don't like spending time with us, Thals?"

Thalia's eyes went wide. "No! I love hanging out with you guys. I didn't mean it like that, it's just—"

"We understand, Thalia," said Nico. "No worries."

Thalia blushed. "Yeah, okay, Nico. Thanks."

"Well, _you _guys might like to sit around talking, but unless there's a reason for me to be here, I'm leaving," huffed Clarisse.

Chris was about to calm her down, but Katie interrupted him. "Clarisse, Rachel called all of us here for a special reason, including you. You might not like it, but you are a part of this group, and we all need to be here. SO why don't you either shut-up and wait like the rest of us, or leave, because _we_," she gestured to everyone else, "would actually like to hang out and just relax after all that's happened. So what's gonna be your choice?" By the time she was finished, she was glaring at Clarisse and growling.

Everyone just stared at Katie. For a daughter of Demeter, she could be downright scary when she wanted to.

Connor whistled low. "Whoa. Cute, smart, funny, _and _violent. Just how Travis likes them," he joked. Travis laughed nervously, and then blushed.

Clarisse just stared at Katie for a moment. "Yeah, whatever," she mumbled.

Conversations started up all around. Everybody waited for a few more minutes, until, suddenly, Rachel burst into the clearing. "I'm here!" she shouted.

"Finally!" everybody exclaimed.

"So, Rachel," Annabeth said, "what did you call us for? You said something about big news."

Rachel nodded. "I do! It's—"

"No, wait!" shouted Travis. "Lemme guess . . . You got an abortion!" A few people chuckled at that.

"Or," Connor chimed in, "you're getting married! So, tell us: who's the lucky boy?" More laughter.

Nico jumped in. "You know," he said in a helpful voice, "I've got this friend in Soho that can design your wedding gown, maybe even the bridesmaid's dresses. What size are you? Oh, and don't _even _get me started on the decorations! She has this color palette to choose from and—"

Rachel rolled her eyes as everybody cracked up. "No. No. BIG no," she said, stopping Nico mid-rant. "Actually it has nothing to do with me. This is about Percy."

"Percy?" asked Thalia. "Percy's not interesting enough to call a meeting for." She smirked at said boy.

Percy smirked right back. "Alright. Say that the next time you need the world to be saved and see what I'll do."

Rachel snickered. "Yeah, okay. So, like I was saying, Apollo came to me in a dream and told me that the Muses had decided to bestow upon Percy . . . his very own myth! They were going to just let the gods and demigods read it, but they decided to let this guy, Rick Riordan I think, to write it in English for the mortals." Rachel took the box from behind her back and handed it to Percy. "They're in Ancient Greek so that you guys will be able to read them. They're not out in the mortal world yet—the Muses don't think they're that important, so they're letting demigods and gods read them first."

"So," she asked Percy, "what do you think?"

Percy just sat there, dumbstruck. "My own_ myth_?" he asked.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah, I think we've established that."

Grover said, "The books are probably just your adventures since coming to camp."

Annabeth took the box from Percy and opened it. "Well, there are five books in here," she said. **"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters; Per—"**

"Could you just read the parts that are different?" the Stolls whined.

Annabeth glared at them. "Fine," she snapped. **"The Titan's Curse; The Battle of the Labyrinth; and The Last Olympian."**

Percy just groaned when she was finished. If all these books were about him, he at least hoped they weren't from his point of view. If they were he would be teased for who knows how long.

"Well, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked. "Do you want to read them or not?"

Percy sighed. "First of all: stop calling me that. Sec—"

"Oh, you know you love it," Annabeth said. She smiled at him.

"And second of all," he continued, smiling back. "Yeah, let's read."

He picked up the first book. "Hold it," said Thalia. "How is that a book of your thoughts? It's way too big!"

Everybody cracked up while Percy made a face at her. "Shut-up, Thalia."

Before he could start reading again, Nico shouted, "Wait! I'll be right back!" He got up and ran into the woods.

"What's his problem?" asked Chris. Everybody else shrugged.

Nico walked back into the clearing after a few minutes. He sat down next to Thalia and said, "Proceed."

Percy looked at him oddly, then shook his head. Better not to ask questions, He thought. He held up the first book. "The first one is called The Lightning Thief." Then he, Annabeth, and Grover groaned.

"What is it?" asked Katie.

"You'll see," was all they said.

"Who wants to read first?" asked Percy.

"You should since it's your myth," replied Rachel.

Percy nodded. He cleared his throat and read, "Chapter One . . ."


	2. Chapter Two: So We Begin

A/N: Okay so, here comes Chapter Two! YAY! I might be able to update maybe two-three times a week, thanks to summer vacay . It might change since I have another story to do. Hopefully you guys will be patient with me. Sorry for the character's OCCness.

A/N: Yeah so the other story I mentioned? The next chapter should be posted maybe by tomorrow? The next day at the least. Remember to review. I can't get better if you don't! Drum roll…Chapter Two awaits!

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><p><strong>CHAPTER TWO: I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER<strong>

"**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher," **Percy read.

"Percy!" Nico cried in mock-astonishment. He put a hand over his heart. "You can't go around vaporizing your teachers just because you don't have your report done!"

Travis _tsk-tsked_. "Percy, Percy, Percy. What are we going to do with you?" he asked in disappointment.

Percy rolled his eyes and continued reading. **"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."**

"No one ever does, Prissy," Clarisse said.

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. **

"That's not gonna work," Annabeth snorted. "Once they realize who they are they won't be able to live a normal life."

"Give me a break," Percy said. "I was twelve."

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check," said Nico.

**It's scary.**

"Check," said Travis.

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"And check," said Connor.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Way to go, Kelp Face. You're already scaring them."

Percy just shrugged. "Hey, it's not like I wrote it. I was probably thinking something along those lines though. And don't call me 'Kelp Face', Termite Head."

Everybody sniggered at the two. Thalia turned red. "Fish Person," she said.

"Pine Cone Face."

"Sea Urchin."

"Ozone Breath."

"Alright, we get it," said Nico. "You guys love each other . . . like cousins, of course," he added hastily under Annabeth's glare. "Um, you can read now, Percy."

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Who's this 'they'?" asked Rachel.

"Monsters. Duh," Katie scoffed. Rachel blushed.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me!" mumbled Nico.

"Uh, I don't really think I need to warn you now," Percy scoffed. "You kind of already are a demigod."

"You still could've warned me," Nico pouted.

"Read, Percy. Ignore Mr. Emo Kid, here," Thalia teased.

"I am not emo!" Nico exclaimed.

Everybody suppressed snorts of amusement. Percy started to read again: **My name is Percy Jackson.**

"No way!" The Stoll brothers yelled. Everybody started laughing, including Percy.

"I thought you were Barbara Walters!" Travis accused.

Connor shook his head in mock-disbelief. "You think you know a guy, and then he goes and tells you he's somebody else."

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes," the whole group chorused.

Percy scowled at everyone, and then glared at Annabeth, who shrugged. "It's the truth, at least somewhat," she stated. "But it's one of the things I like about you." She leaned into him and he relaxed.

Percy looked at the book and then laughed loudly.

"What?" everyone asked, sans Clarisse. Percy just shook his head and showed the book to Annabeth. She, too, started laughing.

"Oh sure," grumbled Grover. "Show your girlfriend, but not the rest of us."

Percy shrugged. "She's closest," he replied.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

Now the whole clearing erupted into laughter. "See, even you agree!" shouted Katie.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids**

"Were you guys included with the mental-cases?" Chris asked teasingly. Percy shrugged while Grover shivered at the memory.

**And two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

Annabeth's eyes lit up. "Oh my gods! That sounds amazing!"

Percy smiled at Annabeth. "I'll take you sometime," he promised.

"Only you would think that it's worth your time," Thalia muttered. "Sounds more like torture to me."

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Everybody started laughing, and some—cough, The Stolls, cough, Nico, cough—were rolling on the ground at Thalia's expression. "Look whose thinking like Prissy!" Clarisse snorted.

After everything had settled down, Nico stood up and pulled Thalia to her feet. To everyone's surprise, it looked like he was holding back tears. "Oh, Thalia! You're so young, too young to be having the same thoughts as . . . Percy!" he sobbed. He gave her a quick hug around her waist, but pulled back just as quickly. "Go into the wilderness, and rid yourself of these horrid thoughts!"

"My thoughts aren't _that_ bad," Percy mumbled.

Everybody in the clearing was cracking up. Thalia rolled her eyes and shook her arm out of Nico's grip. She grabbed him by the ear and dragged him back to where he had been sitting. Thalia plopped down in her spot. "Read," she commanded.

**Most Yancy field trips were. **

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin Teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

_Hmmm_, Annabeth thought. Hadn't Percy called Chiron "Mr. Brunner" when he first got here? So that would mean.

Percy locked eyes with her and he nodded his head. Annabeth smiled and he smiled back. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek **(A/N: I luv Percabeth!)** and put her head on his shoulder. He knew her so well.

**I hoped this trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

There was stunned silence in the clearing for a split second before everyone burst out laughing. "Well, if you weren't aiming for the bus," Connor sniggered, "what were you aiming for?"

Percy shrugged, still laughing. "I have no idea. It could've been a monster and my instincts were warning me to take aim and fire."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Nice choice of words, Perce!"

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Of course, this sent everyone into hysterical laughter. The Stoll brothers were cackling and rolling on the grass. Katie clutched her side from a stitch.

Travis whispered to Katie, but still loud enough for everyone else to hear, "I have a whole new respect for Percy now."

Cue the laughter. It felt good to laugh after all that's happened in the past year—well, maybe not the stitches, but that just came with the package.

**And the time before that . . . Well, you get the idea.**

"Aww," Nico, The Stolls, and Katie whined.

"Yeah, c'mon, Percy," begged Rachel. "Tell us what else happened!"

As an answer to that, Percy just started reading again.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, a freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww," all the girls chorused, sans Clarisse.

"That's disgusting!" Rachel proclaimed. "How could you let her do that to you?" she asked Grover.

Grover shrugged. "I couldn't blow my cover," was all he said.

**Grover was an easy target.**

"Glad that you think so highly of me," Grover muttered.

"That's okay, goat-boy. You'll always be awesome to me," Thalia stated.

"And don't call me 'Goat-boy'!"

**He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Clarisse snorted, "So much for keeping your cover."

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Sure, just go and take away all of the fun of a field trip!" Connor exclaimed. "Making trouble is the best part!"

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it," Thalia encouraged. Annabeth nodded her head. They both hated it when someone picked on Grover.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled back to my seat.**

"Aw, Grover. Now why would you go and do that?" asked Nico. "It would've been funny to hear about Percy losing to a girl."

"I wouldn't have lost, Nico," Percy retorted. He rolled his eyes.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"You would've decked a girl?" Annabeth asked.

"Not just any girl. Only the ones that . . . um . . . attack me and my, er, friends?" It came out like a question. Percy looked terrified of Annabeth right now.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's been there longer than that, Seaweed Brain."

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Wait a second," Annabeth muttered. "Wasn't Mrs. Dodds the cover name of the Fur—I mean, the Kindly One that attacked you?"

"Do you mean Alecto?" Nico asked.

"Annabeth!" Grover scolded. "You just gave away what happened!"

Annabeth blushed. "I'm s-sorry, Grover, I didn't mean to."

Percy gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and then glared at Grover. A spout of water erupted from the ground and hit Grover in the face. "You didn't have to be so mean about it, you know?" he scowled at Grover.

"Sorry, Annabeth," Grover mumbled.

"Aw. Did poor little Annie get fussed at?" Travis asked in a baby voice. Lightning zapped him—courtesy of Thalia—which seemed to shut-him up nicely.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Nervous breakdown my—" Nico started.

Thalia smacked him upside the head. "Language!" she scolded him.

Nico pouted and grumbled to himself while the Stolls laughed at his predicament. This then caused Katie to punch them in the arm for "laughing at other's misfortune."

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"That's not true," Rachel teased. "Nico is devil spawn, while Percy is sea spawn."

"Hey!" the said boys cried indignantly.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"That was real creepy by the way, G-man," Percy told Grover with a shiver.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will, you **_**shut up**_**?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"When you said your face was totally red, did you mean out of anger, like when some dude hits on Annabeth, or totally red, like when someone asks you if Annabeth and you are dating?" Thalia asked teasingly.

Percy blushed beet red.

"That answers my question," Thalia murmured. "Continue."

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relied, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

Katie shivered. "It just _had_ to be that one, didn't it?" Travis put his arm around her for comfort.

"It's kind of hard to think of your parent being in Kronos' stomach for most of the first part of their lives," Percy stated. He, Nico, Katie, and everyone else shivered, except for Thalia, since her dad had not been eaten.

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because . . ."**

"**Well . . ." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"GOD?" everyone shouted.

"Jeez, Fish Breath," Thalia groaned. "I always knew you were dumb, but this is crossing the line!"

"Hey, I didn't know what was going on!" Percy defended himself.

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself.**

"Good," Annabeth said. "You're not completely dumb then."

"I owe all of the information in my head to you," he told her.

"AWW!" all of the girls, sans Clarisse cooed. The boys just rolled they're eyes.

Katie hit Travis. "And what exactly is so wrong about two people who like each other, huh?" she asked him.

Travis looked like a deer in headlights. "I . . . erm . . . I-I'm s-sorry, I just . . ." he trailed off as everyone snickered.

"**And . . . he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"—**and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Wow," Chris said. "I think that's the most basic answer I have ever heard. You just pretty much put a whole century of fighting into FOUR sentences."

"And it was pretty much correct, too," added Rachel. "But if he had had to explain the whole thing, it would've taken forever."

"And," Connor put in, "it's the reason Zeus's so big-headed."

Thunder sounded in the distance.

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Why are they laughing? You got the answer right!" exclaimed Annabeth.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids'."**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"BUSTED!" all of the boys yelled, except Chris and Percy. Katie, Thalia, Rachel, and Annabeth jumped about a foot in the air and yelped. Thalia zapped Nico; Rachel smacked Grover on the head; Katie punched Travis; Annabeth through a rock at Connor's head, which left a good-sized knot. Chris, Clarisse, and Percy tried to stifle their snickers.

"**Busted," Grover muttered. **

A few chuckles from the group.

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Do you think it's 'cause he's half-horse? Or because he's a teacher?" Nico mused. He was still nursing his recent wound. Sadly, no one payed attention to him.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld.**

Annabeth, Grover, and Percy all shivered at this, thinking about where they were going to end up in this story.

**On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

Everyone sniggered. "Classic Chiron," Annabeth mumbled, too low for everyone else to hear.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"When do boys _not_ act like doofuses?" Rachel snorted. All of the girls nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" all of the boys yelled.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew what was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go—intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"He's way older than that, and I believe he's seen _almost_ everything," Annabeth stated.

"Why were you looking at his eyes in the first place, Perce?" asked Connor.

Percy shrugged. "I always look people in the eyes when I talk to them."

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?" **

"You already asked about that, Sea Urchin," snorted Rachel.

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"As he should," Katie mumbled. "It's the only way you'll survive."

**I mean, sure it was kind of cool on tournament days when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"That does sound kind of cool though," Connor said. "Why don't we get to do that?"

"Um, because we fight monsters with _real_ swords, _not_ chalk," Travis snorted.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life.**

"Dude!" The Stoll brothers cried in unison. "How are you doing better than us?"

**No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"I know what you mean," Annabeth murmured. "I have trouble sometimes, too."

Everybody stared at her as if she had just grown a fifth leg. _"You?" _Nico asked, incredulously. "The great Annabeth Chase has trouble with learning?"

Annabeth blushed and glared at him. Apparently, no one was supposed to have heard that except Percy, so everyone just looked away.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was," Grover muttered.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.**

"Dang. Dad must've been really mad at Poseidon for a storm like that," muttered Thalia. Percy nodded.

"Why would Zeus and Poseidon be mad?" asked Rachel. The demigods just shook their heads.

**I figured maybe it was global warming or something,**

"Seriously, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked. "Global warming?"

"What did you expect me to think? I didn't believe in the gods back then," he defended himself. Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

**Because the weather had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Of course not," Thalia grumbled. "Dad gets really dramatic when he gets angry."

Thunder rumbled in the distance. "You know it's true," Thalia rolled her eyes.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

_Of course_, Thalia thought to herself. She didn't like this girl at all.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that**_** school—the school for loser freaks that couldn't make it elsewhere.**

_That's not going to work_, thought Annabeth.

"Did it work?" Clarisse asked Percy and Grover while smirking. They both shook their heads and grinned.

_That's what I thought_. Annabeth smirked as well.

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"You got that right," Nico snorted. The group laughed while Percy pouted.

Annabeth gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and Percy instantly felt better.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

The whole group burst out laughing, while Grover blushed and looked down at his shoes sheepishly.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Boys—ruled completely by their stomachs."

Percy shrugged. "I can't argue with you there," he simply stated. All of the boys nodded their heads.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Aww," cooed Thalia, Rachel, Katie, and the Stolls—though the Stolls did it mockingly, while the girls did it genuinely. Annabeth just smiled. That's probably exactly what Sally would do.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

The Stolls and Nico laughed. "That sounds pretty cool," Nico admitted. "I wonder if you could buy one . . ." he trailed off as the Stolls started humming the song "Umbrella" by Rihana. Everyone laughed at that.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she got tired of stealing from the tourists—**

The Stolls gasped dramatically. Travis put a hand over his heart as Connor said, "I don't know how anyone could get tired of stealing. That's just unheard of."

—**and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Some people snickered. Percy came up with the funniest descriptions.

**I tried to stay cool.** **The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."**

"That never did work for me," Percy mumbled.

**But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"This should be good," Nico chuckled darkly as he rubbed his hands together. He had seen Percy get mad before and— as long as it wasn't directed at him—was pretty fun to watch.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

The whole clearing erupted into laughter. It hadn't been as good as Nico was hoping, but it was still funny to hear. Thalia and Annabeth were just glad that this Nancy chick had gotten what she deserved.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

_Well that's not good_, Katie thought.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

"—**the water—"**

"—**like it grabbed her—"**

"Way to go, Kelp Fer-Brains," Thalia snorted. "You just pretty much gave the monster the evidence she'd been searching for!"

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"Ow!" Percy cried, rubbing the spot where Annabeth had punched him. "What was that for?"

"For giving yourself away like that," Annabeth said. Only Percy and Thalia, who knew Annabeth better than the others, could detect the slight wavering in her voice. She was just worried for Percy, even if he's sitting right next to her—she didn't want him getting hurt. Percy's eyes softened and he gave her a quick one-armed hug before reading on.

"**Now, honey—"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

Chris, Connor, and Travis—all the sons of Hermes—groaned in unison. "Percy, you are not supposed to guess your punishment," Travis scolded.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No duh, Fish Face," Thalia grumbled.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. It was me. **_**I**_** pushed her!"**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Aww," all of the girls said as Grover blushed and looked at the ground.

"Of course I would try to cover for you, Perce," he mumbled. "You _are_ my best friend, you know."

"I know, G-man," Percy said. "Thanks."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But—"**

"**You—**_**will**_**—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. **_**"Now."**_

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later-stare.**

"Oh, yeah," Clarisse muttered. "I'm sure that scared her."

"Is it better than my stare?" Nico asked.

"Totally," said Percy. He gave everyone his cold stare, and everybody shuddered, including Nico and Clarisse. It was weird how someone could act so innocent and so evil at the same time—it was kind of unsettling.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Super-human speed," Nico stated.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know, I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank space behind it. The school counselor told me it was a part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

_Yeah, well, neither are we, Seaweed Brain_, thought a very tense Annabeth.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Well, look who's observant," Rachel praised Percy. "Too bad it's not that easy for him to see, uh, _other_ things." Everyone snickered.

Annabeth looked thoughtful. "He's getting . . . better," she said, pausing only slightly.

Percy made a face at her, while Nico muttered, "Must've been a good book."

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Nah, really?" Nico asked with sarcasm dripping from each word.

**I followed her deeper into the museum.**

Annabeth hit Percy again. "That's for not being more careful," she snapped, the wavering more apparent.

**When I finally caught up with her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

Before Annabeth could hit him again, Percy grabbed her hand and kissed her. He pulled back and said, "That was years ago, Wise Girl. I'm perfectly fine now."

Annabeth just looked into his eyes and sighed. "Fine. But if you let yourself get hurt, I'm going to hurt you myself," she promised.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of the big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in the back of her throat, like growling.**

"It probably was a growl," Nico explained in a lifeless voice.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it . . .**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

Nico snorted. "You weren't that nice to her when we met her at the river," he joked, though there was an underlying tone of guilt that only Percy could hear. Percy grimaced and Annabeth paled.

The others looked at each other, but decided to drop it since nobody was giving them any information.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad—it was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I though nervously. It's not like she was going to hurt me.**

"Think again, Seaweed Brain," Thalia said, but even the joking was half-hearted as she waited to see what would happen.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

Everyone in the clearing looked up at the sky warily.

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"Well that's an amazing offer," Grover snorted.

"Coming from her, it is," Nico said.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Of course you don't," Katie mumbled. Even though she and Percy weren't super close, she still cared about his safety.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Yeah, Percy," Travis said sarcastically. "I'm sure that's it."

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"It really isn't that bad of a book," Annabeth said, and all the other girls nodded their heads. The boys just shuddered.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't . . ."**

**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human.**

"Are you sure?" Connor asked sarcastically. "Maybe you might want to take another look, because she seemed really human to me." No one laughed at his attempt to lighten the mood.

**She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**The things got stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in the front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his hair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

The Stoll brothers looked at each other and held back a fit of laughter. Before they could make a comment though, Annabeth took two rocks from the pile she had made by her feet, and threw them at the Stolls.

She had perfect aim. The Stoll brothers rubbed their foreheads and shut-up.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Chiron used Riptide in school?" Annabeth asked incredulously, letting out the breath she'd been holding in.

All across the clearing, one-by-one, everyone let out the breath they had been holding, even Clarisse. She might not admit it to the others, but she cared for Percy like a friend. He didn't want him hurt—unless she was the one hurting him.

**Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Well, that's not exactly heroic," Chris teased lightly.

"I highly doubt you weren't felling the same way when you faced your first monster," Percy said, smiling slightly.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"You'd think she would've dropped the 'honey' thing by now," Katie said.

"It's her new favorite form of endearment _and_ torture," Nico stated, shuddering lightly.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

"Always referring back to water I see," Travis said in his wisest voice. Connor twirled his imaginary mustache, trying to look wise.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.**

Some people laughed at this while others just snickered. Now that the danger was over, everybody was more relaxed. _Only Percy could get away with thinking that_, thought Rachel.

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing behind but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"You're still letting the Mist affect you, Fish Head?" Thalia asked.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Give me a break! I was almost killed by a monster I didn't even know existed until that moment!"

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Annabeth snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it, Seaweed Brain. It's not like there's any other _reasonable _option to choose from."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "And believing that Greek gods are still alive is being reasonable?"

Annabeth shrugged. "In our world it is."

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside. **

**It had started to rain.**

Thalia glared at the sky. "Thanks a lot, Dad," she muttered. More thunder rumbled, but this time it sounded almost embarrassed.

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Clarisse asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

Everybody laughed at the expression on Clarisse's face from thinking like Percy. "Oh no!" Nico sobbed. "It's spreading faster than I thought! Two people in one chapter! Oh, why? Why, why, why? Why does it have to happen to ones so young?"

The Stoll brothers jumped in. "By my calculations," Connor said in a very scientific voice, "if the rate of infection holds steady, then we will all be infected by . . ." He looked at his brother in horror. "By chapter twelve."

Travis choked up. "We'll keep trying to find the cure. We'll try until we are able to destroy this disease! I hereby swear upon the Styx that I will find a cure for this horror!"

Thunder boomed, louder and closer than before.

Katie shook her head, and put her hand on Travis shoulder, making him blush. "You know, it would awesome if you two were to shut up now," she said sweetly.

She gave Travis a smile, and he looked like he wasn't breathing. "I . . . um . . . yeah, s-sure. O-Okay," he said as he sat down. His brother looked at him, but then shook his head and sat down as well.

Percy started reading: **"Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

Rachel grumbled, "What are you guys? Owls?" Annabeth looked offended, and Rachel quickly apologized. Annabeth Chase was not someone you made mad.

**But he paused first and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

Travis and Connor both groaned loudly. "We _need_ to teach you how to lie, man," Travis told Grover.

Connor took out an official looking notebook and asked, "What time would be okay for you?"

Grover just rolled his eyes as everyone cracked up, and motioned for Percy to keep reading.

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

Everybody looked at the cloudless sky above.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

Every single person in the clearing started laughing hysterically.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

_Freaking owls_, thought Rachel.

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mr. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"**

The Stolls started clapping loudly. "Brava!" cheered Travis, whipping away a fake tear. "Encore! Encore!" He turned to Connor. "Now _that_ was some fabulous lying," he said. Connor nodded.

Percy rolled his eyes. "That was the end of the chapter," he said. "Who wants to read next?"

Grover raised his hand, and Percy handed him the book. Grover cleared his throat. "Chapter two . . ." he read.

* * *

><p>AN: Soooo? What do you guys think? I loved the reviews you guys left, by the way. I'm going to answer them in just a sec, but first I must ask you all a very serious question… Who do you think should join them next? A god? Perhaps Artemis or Athena or Poseidon? Maybe Mr. D? Or should Juniper or some other random camper crash their little get together? Please answer in your reviews!

A/N: Time to answer reviews…

CrazyDyslexicNerd: Jee, thanks! I love your support!

22mira22: I know! My cousin helped me come up with that!

Animal Charmer 11: hmmm…..interesting. But I think they're just gonna stay friends in this book. Thanx for the suggestion though!

Evil-Muffin-ator: I probably get some gods in here. That probably would be funny with Percy's descriptions . . .

xXxWiseGirlXxX: I know right? Good thing I love to type.

Lostrose98: haha thanks!

TheMuseNamedPancake: That's a good suggestion, but, we'll just have to see, won't we? *wink, wink*

Thank you guys for reviewing! I love 'em! Keeps the love coming. Next chapter should be up in a couple days time! Try not to get eaten by monsters until then :)


	3. Chapter Three: Nice Titles Percy!

**A/N: Here it is! Chapter Three! *wipes away tear* It's just so beautiful! LOLZ I'm soooo hyper right now . . . . . . . Alright, I'm calmer now. So I've been getting y'alls reviews (love 'em BTW) and the people that you want to join are**

**Poseidon & Athena (come together or separately)**

**The Big Three (at the same time or gradually)**

**Apollo**

**Hermes**

**Jason, Leo, and Piper**

**A/N: Give me the answers in y'alls reviews! The first place winner comes in the next chapter Second place comes into the chapter after that. The third place comes in the next book…You guys didn't know that I was doing the whole series?Oh, right I never told you…lolz. Here comes the next chapter! (Sorry for any OCCness!)**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER THREE: THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH<strong>

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death,"** Grover read. Percy shuddered.

"Ooh, deadly sock," Nico joked. "This is right up my alley."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over pretty quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

"Actually, Percy," Grover mumbled while looking at the ground, "it was just me and Chiron that were playing a trick on you. The rest of the students had no idea what was going on."

"It's alright, G-man," Percy said. "I know you were just protecting me."

**The students acted as if they were totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blonde woman whom I've never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"**Ahh," Travis said sarcastically. "The beauty of the Mist." Connor placed a hand over his heart.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Classic Percy," Katie muttered. "Never had the sense to try and not look like a psycho."

Rachel overheard Katie, and snorted. "What do you mean _act_ like a psycho? The first time we met, he tried to cut me in half!"

Percy blushed. "I told you, like, twenty times already: that was an accident!"

Everybody in the clearing was suppressing giggles and snorts. Annabeth patted Percy's hand, but she was holding back a smile as well.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

Grover sighed. He had hoped that Percy had accepted what he saw was just a figment of his imagination. Grover was never sure, even if he could read Percy's emotions.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

The Stoll brothers groaned.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist.**

Annabeth asked Grover, "How soon can you take those lessons?" She smiled at him innocently. Everyone laughed as he made a face at her.

Connor took his note book out again, and opened it. "How about . . . next Thursday?" he asked Grover. "Does three o'clock p.m. work for you?"

Grover hesitated, then blushed and nodded his head mutely. Everyone chuckled at the exchange.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had**_** happened at the museum.**

"Well, someone's a smarty pants," Nico mumbled under his breath.

At the same time, Rachel said, louder, "Oh, yeah. Nothing much. Just you almost getting killed by a Fur—"

"Kindly One," Percy interrupted her hastily.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "_Kindly One_ . . . but, yeah, that's pretty much it." She laid on the sarcasm heavily.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings woke me up in a cold sweat.**

Everybody in the clearing nodded their heads, including Clarisse and Rachel. They, too, had had nightmares about their first encounter with a monster. It pretty much scarred you for life.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

Annabeth and Thalia both glared at the sky.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic.**

"So," Rachel said, "I take it that the gods are fighting?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Aren't they always?" she asked, rhetorically.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable.**

"Looks like someone's got his monthly friend," Connor whispered to his brother. They both started snickering.

They only stopped laughing when Thalia gave them one of her evil stares, and Annabeth threw a rock at them.

**My grades slipped from D's to F's. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"That's my boy," Travis said, as if he was a proud father that Percy was getting into trouble.

Connor wiped away a fake tear. "We taught him so well," he said.

The whole clearing rolled their eyes, while others—Nico—snickered at the brothers jokes.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means—" Annabeth started. She was cut off by the Travis and Connor, whooping and laughing, and high fiving each other.

"I don't know why you're cheering," Thalia said. "That had to be the saddest insult ever. It means an 'old drunk' in British, right?" Thalia looked at Annabeth, who nodded.

Travis shrugged. "It's still funny to us."

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Are you sure that wasn't just an excuse?" Rachel asked Percy. "Did you actually like it there?"

Percy gave her a look that clearly questioned her sanity. "I would never joke about being able to see my mother," he stated. Everyone who had net Mrs. Jackson nodded. Who wouldn't love to see Sally?

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Percy's eyes tightened at the mention of his stepfather. Nico and Rachel looked confused, though. "I thought Sally was married to Paul," Nico asked.

Annabeth answered for Percy. "She is, but before that she married a man called Gabe." Percy shot her a grateful look. He still wasn't able to talk about his stepfather without losing control.

**And yet . . . there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,—"**

Grover paused to smile at Percy. "Thanks, Perce," he said.

—**even if he was a little strange.**

Now Grover stopped to glare at Percy, who was looking at his shoes with a sudden interest. The Stolls, Nico, Thalia, and Katie were holding back laughter.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

Nobody could hold back their laughter. "Glad to know that you have complete confidence in me," Grover mumbled.

Percy blushed.

"Well," Thalia said between sniggers, "Percy, once you left Yancy, then Grover wouldn't have stayed there another year."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Well, how was I supposed to know that, Needle Brain?"

Nico snorted in amusement. "Looks like Percy's coming up with some more nicknames," he said.

"You better believe it, Death Breath," Percy smirked in return.

Nico blushed. "I wouldn't talk, Tuna Face. We both know that I would have you begging for mercy in two seconds."

Now it was Percy's turn to snort. "Yeah. In your dreams, Skeleton Dude."

"Actually," Thalia put in, "you would both be bowing to my awesomeness because I would electrocute you, Sea Urchin," she pointed to Percy, "and you," she pointed to Nico, "Mr. Emo Kid."

Percy snorted at the same time that Nico yelled, "I am not emo! I just like wearing black!"

The cousins went back and forth, from Nico to Percy to Thalia, while the others cracked up and watched them like an interesting tennis match**. (A/N: This came from CrazyDyslexicNerd! LOL Thanks for the idea!) **They only ended when Katie made vines grow out of the ground, and wrap around their mouths.

"Alright, we get it," Katie said impatiently. "You guys bicker just like your dads! Now sit down or we won't finish the chapter."

The Big Three children grumbled and sat back down. Everybody was still trying to contain their laughter.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Aww," Annabeth cooed. "You want to impress Chiron."

"Wait a second," Katie said. "That's Chiron?"

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. Thunder boomed. "I wasn't supposed to say anything."

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I started to believe him.**

"Do you wonder that if he hadn't told you that," Rachel mused, "that you wouldn't have realized who you are?"

Percy thought about that for a moment. "I don't know," he decided. "But I'm glad he did. I like my life just the way it is right now," he said, putting his arm around Annabeth while he said it.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room.**

Annabeth smacked Percy in the arm. "You shouldn't treat books like that!" she scolded him.

Percy mumbled an apology while the Stoll brothers snickered quietly.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,—**

"Now that's just ironic," Annabeth muttered, interrupting Grover. "And that's not even that hard," she added as an afterthought.

—**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

Chris nodded. "If only tests were verbal," he said longingly. The other demigods nodded. It would be way easier if they didn't have to read the questions.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"That's probably the reason that you're failing," Katie pointed out.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Well, look who wants to impress their teacher," Clarisse teased.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the floor.**

"Good," said Annabeth. It looked like Percy was going to get the help that he needed, and actually get a good grade.

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said ". . . worried about Percy, sir."**

Everyone in the clearing groaned as Grover blushed. Now Percy wasn't going to get the help he needed to pass the test. Everyone, sans Percy, looked at Grover with a 'Why-didn't-you-close-the-door?' expression. Grover suddenly found his shoes very interesting.

Just as Thalia was about to say something, Grover started to read hastily.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,—**

Annabeth scoffed.

"Well, I never was one before," Percy grumbled.

—**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"I tried that once," Travis said. He shook his head. "Didn't work out."

"**. . . alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly one in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they**_** know too—"**

**Nico asked, "What didn't you say in front of him?"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

The whole clearing burst into snorts and giggles. "He's _still_ not mature," Annabeth snickered.

Percy just smirked and closed his eyes. Everybody stopped laughing one by one. Percy's eyes were still closed.

Just as Annabeth started to tap Percy on the shoulder, water spouts burst out of the ground all over the clearing—about twenty-two in all. Two spouts hit each person, dousing them completely from head to toe. Then the spouts shut off.

Every single person was dripping wet—except for Percy of course.

They stared at Percy. Thalia glared at him with bloody murder in her eyes, but Percy didn't seem to notice. He shrugged and said, "I was just giving you guys an example of my immaturity."

There was dead silence for a minute or so, and then everybody started laughing again, including Percy. Travis shook his hair like a dog, spraying Katie and Connor with little droplets. Annabeth wrung her hair out. Once everything had settled down again, Grover started to read.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—"**

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he can."**

"I have a feeling that Percy's ignorance just jumped out a four-story window, when he heard that," said Nico, still trying to wring out his shirt.

"**Sir, he **_**saw **_**her. . . ."**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I . . . I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia put her arm around Grover. "You never failed Grover. I made my own decision," she told him. Grover nodded mutely, and kept on reading.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

_Percy's not gonna like that_, thought Nico.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

The Stoll brothers groaned loudly. "We need to teach you sneaking lessons, Perce," Travis told Percy. He turned to Connor. "Mark him down next . . . Monday at noon, for his first lesson," he told his brother. Connor nodded and started jotting stuff down in his note book.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

"That really freaked us out, you know," Grover told Percy. "I nearly fainted."

"Sorry, man," Percy apologized.

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

Connor nodded his head. "Good. Never leave any evidence behind that might incriminate you."

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Well, that's kind of dumb," Thalia muttered.

Grover shrugged. "There could've been an attack at any time. We had to be prepared."

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.**

"I never knew you were that observant," Annabeth said. Percy just shrugged.

**A large, dark shape passed in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"I would've thought that Chiron would be able to find you better than that," Rachel put in.

"He was probably looking for a monster, not a person or a half-blood," Thalia said.

"And plus," Nico stated, "Percy's scent would've been all over the school already."

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could've sworn . . ."**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

"How many exams _have _you taken?" Percy asked.

Grover shuddered. "Too many to count," he said.

**The lights went off in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

This time, Travis nodded his head. "Very, _very_ good. Make sure all witnesses have cleared out before you make your escape."

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he's been there all night.**

"Did you really think that you could've fooled him?" Nico asked Grover incredulously.

Grover just ignored him, not interested to talk about his acting skills at the moment.

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just . . . tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my face, and started getting ready for bed. **

"You do know that he can read your emotions, right?" Chris asked Percy.

"Of course I do . . . now," Percy said.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The Next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,—**

"T-Three h-hours?" Nico asked in a shrill voice. He and Travis and Connor all shuddered. If they had had to take that test . . .

—**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eaves dropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's . . . it's for the best."**

"Ooh," Travis grimaced. "That's got to be hard, man."

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Annabeth growled quietly. Rachel, who was the closest next to Annabeth, besides Percy, scooted away from her, just in case she got her hand around a rock.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean . . ." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"I don't think he's explaining himself very well," Nico said in a wise voice.

"He should know that Percy's just going to take that the wrong way," Thalia said.

Percy pouted. "I resent that," he mumbled.

**My eyes stung.**

There were a few coughs and snickers at that, but nobody said anything. Thalia had that 'I-told-you-so' look on. Percy blushed, and Annabeth grabbed his hand—it probably hurt to hear the only teacher that had believed in him to now say that he wasn't cut out for this school

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say . . . you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"He should stop while he's ahead," Grover said. "He's just going to make it worse."

"Chiron isn't very good at pep-talks," Percy shrugged. It had hurt at the time, but now . . . now that Percy understood what he meant, it wasn't that bad.

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"Well, that was kind of rude, Percy," Connor joked. "You should never leave when an adult is talking to you."

**On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a whole month.**

"I've done both, and it's really not that bad," Rachel stated. Everybody stared at her. "What?"

**They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I wouldn't call your dad a nobody, Kelp Face," Thalia said. "I mean, we all know he's not as cool as _my_ dad, but still . . ."

Nico snorted. "On the contrary, I'm pretty sure that my dad trumps both of your anyways."

Percy chuckled. "Actually, my dad _is_ the coolest out of the Big Three . . . which means _I'm_ the coolest out of us three." He pointed to Thalia, Nico, and himself. "And, besides, I had no idea who my father was at the time."

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Annabeth then proceeded to call the boys a number of names in both English and Greek, and, surprisingly, French. She went on like that for a while until Percy put his hand over her mouth.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Wow!" Nico said sarcastically. "That's _so_ shocking!"

"Can you say 'stalker'?" asked Clarisse.

"Sure!" cried Travis. "Stalker . . . there, that was easy." Travis seemed very pleased with himself. Katie grinned and bumped Travis's shoulder. He blushed.

Annabeth and Percy shared a look, and then smiled. Annabeth nuzzled closer to Percy's shoulder, and Percy put his head on top of hers.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching other passengers.**

"That is stalker-like behavior," Thalia said.

"And extremely obvious," Chris added. "You probably looked like a fugitive on the run from the police."

**It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. **

"Why was that anyways?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, couldn't it have been just as easy for a monster to attack me at school?"

"It's harder to detect monsters when you're out in the open like that," Grover explained. "They could be coming from all around for all I know."

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Nearly made me pee myself," Grover mumbled. Everyone laughed at that.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"No, Percy!" Travis shouted "You never, _ever _confess!" He turned towards his brother. "We have a lot of to do." Connor nodded. He pulled out his note book, but Thalia blasted it out of his hand and sent it into the woods.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you here?"**

"**Oh . . . not much. "What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"So," Annabeth said, "pretty much everything, huh?" Percy grinned.

**He winced. "Look, Percy . . . I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers . . ."**

"You're rambling," Nico stated. "When you ramble, it looks like you're being untruthful and nervous, and if you're trying to lie, then that's very bad for your cover."

Everyone in the clearing looked at him. "What?" he asked, incredulous. "I talked with this con artist in the Underworld."

"**Grover—"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were stressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and . . ."**

"Rambling," Nico sang. Thalia and Katie snickered.

"**Grover you're a really, really bad liar.**

No one could hold back their laughter at that. Travis and Connor and Nico and Thalia were rolling around in the grass; Katie had tears coming out of her eyes; Rachel clutched her side and almost fell over; Nico was cackling like a mad man with his face in the dirt.

Even Percy and Annabeth were cracking up, Percy's head on Annabeth's lap, and her face in his hair. Clarisse and Chris leaned back-to-back, propping each other up—they were laughing so hard, that they would've fallen over had the other not been there.

Grover just blushed and silently snickered.

Stitches were now the new style in the clearing.

Nymphs stirred from their trees to check out the noise. They gave the demigods a long look, then smiled and disappeared back into their trees.

It took almost five minutes for everyone to calm down, but even then there were still random snorts and giggles that burst out. Grover kept reading where he left off.

**His ears turned pink.**

Thankfully, no one went into a laughing fit, but Nico was shaking with silent laughter.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"If half-bloods can't read English very well, who put the camp's business cards into fancy script?" Rachel asked.

"Mr. D," everyone said at the exact same time. That one name cleared it up.

"**What's Half—"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um . . . summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grover asked.

"Just that you didn't act like a stuck-up snob that the others seemed to be," Percy answered.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at Percy. "Is there something _wrong_ with being rich?" she asked him icily.

Percy paled. "No! I . . . erm . . . just m-meant to s-say t-that . . . no-not that _y-you _act stuck-up, but . . . I . . . I'm just gonna shut-up now," he ended lamely as everyone else snickered.

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or . . . or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

Annabeth hit Percy. "Ow!" he cried. "What the heck was that for?"

"For being mean to Grover like that!" she exclaimed.

"I didn't mean to be harsh," Percy mumbled pathetically. "It just came out like that."

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"See," Percy said.

Annabeth just shrugged.

Percy pouted, but then he relaxed when Annabeth squeezed his hand.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"Aww," all of the girls cooed. The boys just rolled their eyes.

Travis teased, "Annabeth, I think Percy's cheating up on you."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"That's kind of ominous," said Nico. "I mean, you just asked what Grover was protecting you from, and all of a sudden the bus stops for no reason."

Thalia plucked him in the ear. "Way to point out the obvious," she said.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt, shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old fashioned fruit stand.**

Grover gulped before continuing to read. It was even harder reading about it now, even after everything that had gone on, wondering if his friend was still in danger.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Annabeth frowned at this, trying to figure out what this meant. Percy had closed his eyes, and was ever so slightly moving away from Annabeth, trying to be out of range whenever she figured it out.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Annabeth's frown turned into a scowl as she started to put the last of the puzzle together.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"NO!" Annabeth yelled and shot up, finally figuring it out. "YOU SAW THE FATES AND NEVER TOLD ME?" she screeched at Percy. "YOU _VLACAS_! I CAN'T _BELIEVE_ YOU! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? IT . . . YOU . . ." She sat down and burst into tears.

Percy looked like he wanted to comfort her, but in her current state, he wasn't sure it was safe yet. Everybody just looked either confused—trying to figure out how Annabeth thought these ladies were the Fates—or uncomfortable at Annabeth's tears—cough, all of the boys, cough.

Annabeth continued to bawl her eyes out. Percy looked at her through pained eyes.

Finally, he took a huge risk: he sat down next to her and gave her a hug, putting her head on his chest.

Annabeth seemed to cry forever—but in truth, it was only about a minute and forty-eight seconds. She finally lifted her head and wiped her eyes. Then she hit Percy—he didn't complain. He knew that he deserved it.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked him in a whisper.

Percy looked at her. "Because," he told her, ". . . because . . . because I pretty much forgot all about them," he told her truthfully. He stared at him, and he stared back. Then, something sparked in her eyes, and he knew he was forgiven.

She hit him, but Percy just smiled. She had forgiven him—at least for now—and that was enough for him.

"But, if you ever do this again," she sniffled, "you are going to wish you hadn't." She put her head back on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

Grover took this as a cue that things were settled, and continued to read: **"The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Percy braced himself for another hit, but all Annabeth did was bury her face into Percy's chest more. He rubbed her arm.

Everyone decided not to notice this little transaction going on, but they all looked a little bit pale at the prospect that Percy might . . . die.

**I looked over to Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"Why does it do that anyway?" Nico asked, trying to lighten the mood. Too bad it didn't work.

Grover stiffened. "It does that whenever I get nervous or wary. Most of the time it's when some monster is around," he explained.

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

Thalia gave Grover a harsh glance. "You know, you didn't have to say that," she scolded him.

Grover didn't answer. He kept reading.

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"That's not funny, Percy," half of the demigods in clearing said.

Percy cast his eyes downward. "I was just trying to lighten the mood," he explained.

Grover managed a faint smile. "That's okay, Perce. At least you tried."

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady middle in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

Annabeth made a pained noise in the back of her throat. Percy patted her back and Thalia sent her a sympathetic look. She couldn't know what emotions were going through Annabeth at the moment, so she wasn't exactly sure how to help.

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"Scared the Hades out of me," Grover put in.

This time it was Clarisse who shot Grover a harsh glance. "Would you, shut-up? The ones of us that don't know what the Hades is going on, would like to get through this chapter before we grow-old. Now, if you please?"

Grover did the smart thing: he shut-up.

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

Connor was about to make a comment, but Clarisse's and Thalia's glares shut him up pretty quickly.

_He's not going to listen_, thought Katie, silently.

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

_I knew it_, thought a smug Katie.

**Across the road, the three old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic. **

Grover's voice was shaking slightly at the end. Every single person in the clearing shivered. Annabeth took this time to hit Percy. He flinched, but didn't make a sound.

**Her two friends balled up the electric blue socks, leaving me to wonder who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Travis and Connor chuckled weakly at this, still able to find something funny in a serious situation.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"Hmm," Nico mumbled. "It's almost as if the Fates wanted you to see this, Percy." Any person with brains knew that that was not a very smart thing to say.

Thalia smacked him on the back of the head. Nico ducked as a big rock sailed over his head. "Never say that again," hissed Annabeth. "If you know what's good for you."

Percy put his hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed back into him.

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the bus driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd gotten the flu.**

"It's because you were starting to realize who you were, even subconsciously," Grover stated, continuing to read before anyone could make a comment.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"Pretty much everything," Rachel said, with a roll of her eyes.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like . . . Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Not exactly," Chris said. "In some ways they're much worse."

"Jee, thanks for telling me that," Travis said with a roll of his eyes.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

Just hearing about it again made everyone shudder, none worse than Grover, Percy, and Annabeth.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"Of course it would be older," said Thalia.

At the same time, Nico said, "There he goes again, being observant again. I wonder how long it'll last?" Percy shot him a smirk.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"Looks like _somebody's_ learning," Connor teased.

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time**."

Thalia glared at Grover. "You just had to bring that up again, didn't you?"

Grover dropped his gaze. "I was mumbling to myself. I had already missed my one shot with you, Thalia, and I couldn't mess it up with Percy. What kind of protector would I be if I let my two friends _both_ be killed?" His voice was trembling as he finished.

Thalia put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I thought we told that if you ever went into 'Hate Grover', that we would make you watch us eat cheese enchiladas, and not share?"

Grover blanched. Then he smiled and chuckled. He started to read again.

"**What last time?"**

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"You know," Percy stated, "I have noticed that."

"What?" Katie asked.

"That every demigod that Grover has been protector for, has been twelve, in the sixth grade, and a Big Three child."

Thalia and Nico barked a short laugh. "That is the truth," Nico said.

"And it's all because Grover is the _best_ protector and satyr there ever was," Thalia stated simply. Grover blushed.

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

Grover snorted. "Some promise."

Percy blushed and shrugged.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this like superstition or something?" I asked.**

Katie thought a moment. "Yeah," she said. "I guess it is."

**No answer.**

"You know, that was really annoying," Percy whined.

"**Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

_Yes_, Annabeth thought, tightening her grip on Percy. _You._

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That was really creepy by the way, Grover," Percy said.

"Sorry, Perce," Grover said. "Anyways, that was the end of the chapter. Who wants to read the next chapter?"

Annabeth surprised everybody by raising her hand, but then that surprise disappeared—they were reading a book, after all.

Grover passed her the book, and Annabeth flipped to the correct page.

"Chapter three . . ." she said.

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><p><strong>AN: Sooooo tell me what you think! Good? Bad? So-so? I'll only figure it out if you review! c[:**

**A/N: Don't forget to give me your answers to who you want to come in next! Remember…first place comes in the next chapter; second comes in the chapter after that; third place comes in the first chapter of the next book (and yes, I AM doing the whole series) I love you guys!**

**Try not to get eaten by monsters before I bring out the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4: I Love Your Evil Brain, Nico!

**A/N: Okay, I'm sooooo sorry for not updating sooner! Please don't try to come to my house and mob me...my mom wouldn't like that. Her house could possibly get dirty. Haha. Anyways, I just wanted to thank all of the people who have reviewed and faved this story. You guys truly inspire me to do my best at writing. I hope you enjoy this chapter! **

**A whole lot of thanks to Arysthae for being an awesome beta to this story!  
><strong>

**A/N: I almost forgot to mention: the contest for who is going to join the PJO crew in reading the book is now on my profile. All you guys need to do is click on my poll and vote! Remember: the first place pick gets to be in the next chapter; the second place pick gets to be in the chapter after that; the third place pick gets to be in the first chapter of the second book. And now...*drum roll*...Chapter Four has started!**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER FOUR: GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS<strong>

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants," **Annabeth read. Everyone turned their eyes on Grover, who was looking at his hooves with a new interest.

Percy suppressed a smile at the title, having a good idea what was going to happen in this chapter.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Oh my gods, Percy," Thalia groaned. "You are so dumb! If you ditch Grover, how is he going to be able to protect you?"

"Not to mention that it was really rude," Katie added.

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

Katie nodded her head. "At least you knew it was rude."

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

Now Thalia turned on Grover with an incredulous expression. "You do realize," she told him, "that if you hadn't been mumbling all kinds of nonsense, Percy probably wouldn't have left?"

Grover didn't answer. Annabeth took this as time to start reading again.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the bathroom.**

The Stoll brothers and Nico cracked up at this until Katie and Thalia shushed them, though they were holding back smiles themselves.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

Thalia shook her head at this and glared at Percy, but said nothing.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She's awesome!" Annabeth said. Percy smiled at her.

Thalia and Nico were also nodding their heads. "She's kind, and funny, and smart," Thalia stated. More quietly, she mumbled, "She makes me feel like I actually have a mom."

"And," Nico said excitedly, unaware of Thalia's mumbling, "she makes _killer_ blue birthday cakes."

Everyone stared at him. "What?" Nico asked innocently. "I visited Percy on his birthday."

Percy smiled at this, but inside he was cringing, remembering why Nico had visited him.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,—**

Thalia nodded again, but didn't say anything this time.

—**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

At this Thalia, Nico, and everyone else who knew Sally, frowned. She seemed pretty lucky to them.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Now everyone was either looking at the ground sadly, or looking at Percy with sympathy.

Percy didn't acknowledge their looks. He knew how happy his mom had turned out, and, even though it was sad hearing his mom's childhood, he knew that it helped her become who she is today.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

When Annabeth read that, everyone in the clearing smiled. Finally, Sally got some good luck.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

Thalia and Nico stared at Percy with something like envy, while the others stared at him with a surprised look on their faces. None of their godly parents had ever visited them while they were growing up.

Thalia opened her mouth to say something, but Connor cut her off by stating, "Well, this is an awkward silence."

That got the desired effect: everyone started laughing.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "It's not awkward until you say it's awkward, Connor," she explained.

"It felt plenty awkward to me," he stubbornly mumbled.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic and never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mother told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Wow," Chris mumbled. "That's actually telling the truth, while lying at the same time."

The Stolls and Nico nodded their heads. "She's very good at this," Travis muttered.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

Annabeth snorted. "Isn't that the truth?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm only just starting to see what she had to go through."

Percy pouted. "I'm not _that_ bad," he grumbled.

"Oh, yeah?" Thalia challenged. "Pretty much all you do in your free time is start war among the gods, have your crazy and blood thirsty grandfather hate you, destroy national monuments . . ."

"Tick off almost all of the gods," Nico added, "entice the Kindly Ones, the Minotaur, and every single monster in the world come and fight you—"

Rachel cut him off. "And don't forget trying to slice mortals in half," she said.

Percy groaned at Rachel. "That was _one time_!" he shouted. "And besides it's not _me _personally, it's the Fates and my bad luck."

"Whatever, Percy," Katie sighed. "Can we start reading again?"

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano—**

Percy and Annabeth ground their teeth at that name. Annabeth had never met Gabe, but Percy had told her about him, and she didn't like him one bit.

—**, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe.**

"Which was _so_ true," Grover muttered, wrinkling his nose.

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Hades' gym shorts?" Nico asked.

"Even worse than that," Percy told him gravely. Nico shuddered. "But," Percy added, "it was exactly that smell that kept me alive."

Nico looked confused, but didn't ask. He knew what the answer would be.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along . . . well, when I came home is a good example.**

Travis chuckled. "This ought to be good," he muttered to Katie, who rolled her eyes and giggled.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies.**

"Hard to believe he had any friends at all, the way he treated them," Percy said darkly.

**The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

Katie and Rachel started gagging. Even Clarisse and the other boys looked disgusted by Gabe's mess.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

Annabeth glared at the book in her hands. "The least he could've done was act a little nicer."

Travis thought that if Annabeth glared at the book, then it was going to spontaneously combust, but he didn't say anything for fear that she would turn on _him_, and _he_ would combust.

"**Where's my mom?"**

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**_

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Sweet Holy Demeter, I did _not_ need that image in my head," Katie gagged. Travis patted her hand.

"That is seriously disgusting," Thalia said. She shook her head. "I feel sick. I think I need to lie down for a minute." Thalia looked around for a comfy spot, but didn't see one, so she settled for Nico, who was sitting next to him. She gave him a questioning look. Nico, understanding, nodded his head. Thalia nodded back and rested her head on Nico's lap.

Everybody looked at Thalia, then at Nico, then back to Thalia, and once again to Nico. Nico just looked back at them and shrugged his shoulders, trying not to blush.

"I don't hear any reading," Thalia said, opening one eye. Annabeth hastily picked up where she left off.

**He managed the Electronic Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting pay checks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret". Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"_WHAT?"_ Thalia and Annabeth yelled. Thalia snapped her eyes open and sat up. Thunder rumbled, very close by. "Where is this guy, and how fast can I kill him?"

Annabeth ground her teeth. "I really hate to say it, Thalia, but Gabe is gone," Annabeth told her. Then she looked at Percy. "If he touched you—" she started.

"Calm down, Wise Girl," Percy soothed. "He didn't touch me."

Annabeth sat back into him, but she was still furious. Thalia looked a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to kill Gabe, but she sighed and put her head back on Nico's lap.

"**I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Thalia let out a disgusted moan. Nico didn't know what to do to help her, so he settled on patting her hand.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own scent should've covered up everything else.**

Grover wrinkled his nose at that, knowing it was true.

"**You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

Thalia started muttering a bunch of profanities. It took Nico a second to put his hand over her mouth to shut her up.

At the same time, Connor joked, "Well, if you're paying by weight, then Gabe probably owes a couple hundred thousand dollars." Everyone laughed.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

Annabeth huffed. "I guess he's not as bad," she admitted.

"**Am I **_**right**_**?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Katie and Rachel turned green. Thalia, who had already been green, turned even more so.

"That," Katie said, "is the single most disgusting thing I've ever heard." Rachel nodded her head in agreement. "I've got to lie down before I throw up," Katie added. She slid lower, and rested her head on Travis's chest, who was relaxing next to her. As she scooted closer to him, he blushed furiously.

Percy looked at the two, then to Thalia and Nico. Then he looked back at Annabeth, who was looking at the two groups as well. Their eyes met, and an understanding passed through them. Percy raised his eyebrow, and Annabeth smiled and shrugged. He laughed quietly and put his arm over her shoulder.

But Clarisse watched Katie and Thalia with a look of distaste. _Wimps_, she thought. But then Chris grabbed her hand, and Clarisse was soon having the same thoughts going through Percy and Annabeth's minds.

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"**Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"You probably would've gotten a worse grade you little—" Annabeth got cut off when Percy put his hand over her mouth.

"Hmm," Nico said. "That's a new nickname."

Thalia opened one eye. "And it's the total opposite of what Percy really is, so it'll be twice as funny."

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study."**

Connor snorted. "Ha," He said. "Study my—Ow!"

Even though Katie's eyes were closed, she was close enough to Connor that she was able to kick him before he could curse.

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Katie squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, and buried her face into Travis's chest. Travis looked positively ecstatic at that, and tentatively put his arm around her.

Thalia groaned and put her arm over her eyes. Nico hesitantly put his hand on her head and stroked her hair. Without either Travis or Nico noticing, both Katie and Thalia smiled at these gestures.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"That bad?" Chris asked Percy.

Percy nodded. "It was like a three-way tie," he said. Annabeth just shivered at the mention of the Fates.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him.**

"Oh, shut-up, Grover," Rachel teased. "We know Percy did a stupid thing—you don't have to look smug."

Grover had started to grin, but it turned into laughter as everyone looked at him. "I wasn't smiling because of that," he explained. "I was smiling because Percy actually remembered the promise."

Everyone caught the joke, and quickly started laughing along with Grover. Even Thalia and Katie managed small chuckles.

**A sudden chill ran through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

Annabeth made a face and flicked Percy on the ear. "Don't think like that, Seaweed Brain," she chided him. "With your luck, it might happen just because you thought it."

Percy mumbled, "Sorry," and gave Annabeth a kiss on the cheek. She smiled and started reading again: **Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

Connor and Travis snickered at that, but stopped when Annabeth picked up two rocks, daring them to laugh.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is a warm quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all of the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"Just like I do," Annabeth said. She gave Percy a kiss, and he blushed a bit. Everybody else just smiled at the way Mrs. Jackson was described. She treated them all so nicely, like they were her own children.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

Clarisse grunted. "She's got to have a gift to never back talk to Gabe. Or punch him. Or kill him. Or . . . well, you get my point."

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

Connor's jaw dropped. "No fair!" he shouted, causing Thalia and Katie to jump. They glared at him, and he gulped.

Travis complained, but in a lower volume. "Now you've made me hungry."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Then she checked her watch. "Okay," she said. "Why don't we finish this chapter, and then go eat? It's almost lunch anyways."

Travis and Connor nodded their heads, then fist-bumped each other.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about me getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy alright?**

The Stolls started to laugh again, while Percy blushed. Then Travis and Connor got shocked with lightning. It was Percy's turn to laugh.

**I told her to stop smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip?"**

Annabeth ground her teeth at that. Travis just looked hungry.

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not some jerk like Gabe.**

"I don't know about that," Rachel said. "She seems pretty happy with Paul."

**For her sake, I tried to sound enthusiastic about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. **

"Thanks, Percy," Grover said.

"You're welcome, G-man," Percy told him.

**Even Nancy Bobofit didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum . . .**

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something happen to you?"**

"**No, mom."**

"Don't lie to her, Prissy. She's probably the only one who could help you," Clarisse stated.

Everyone stared at her.

Finally, Connor spluttered, "D-did you just g-g-give _Percy_ advice?"

Clarisse scowled and blushed. "Shut up, maggot," she growled. "I meant that only Sally could help him because she's not as much of a wimp as Prissy."

**I felt bad lying.**

"As you should," Katie muttered.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"Everything that comes out of your mouth sounds stupid," Nico teased.

Percy made a face at him. "Shut up, Tomb Raider Lara."

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

"**I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"**Three nights—same cabin."**

"**When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get dressed."**

"I don't get it," Rachel said. "What's so special about Montauk?"

Percy smirked. "Well, you'll just have to wait and see."

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two years—**

Travis gasped. "Two years without being next to the ocean?" he said in a sarcastic tone. "That's got to be torture."

Katie mumbled against his chest, "Just think if you weren't allowed to steal or play any pranks for two years. Wouldn't you be excited to do it again?"

Travis mumbled, "I guess."

—**because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Yeah, right," Annabeth said.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"Speak of the devil," Rachel muttered.

"Don't say that," Chris chided. "That's an insult to Hades." Everybody cracked up, while Nico pouted.

**I wanted to punch him—**

"Why didn't you, Prissy?" Clarisse mocked. "Too scared?" Even if Clarisse was mocking Percy, she still wished that he had punched Gabe —or better yet, _she _could have punched Gabe.

** —but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"I wouldn't be able to stand being nice to him for even one second," Rachel grumbled. Annabeth locked her jaw in agreement.

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

Chris rolled his eyes. "Oh, for the love of Zeus!" he cursed. "Of course she was serious, you piece of —"

He was cut off by Clarisse putting a finger over his lips. That was kind of shocking. Clarisse wasn't really one to hold back a curse, even if it was coming from somebody else.

"Shh," she told him. "I want to hear this, and I can't do that if you don't be quiet."

Connor, not hearing what Clarisse said, told Chris, "Actually, I think the curse is, 'Oh, for the love of Olympus,' or something like that."

"**I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"**Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, Gabriel won't have to settle for bean-dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip to last for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.**

Connor and Travis licked their lips at the sound of that. Even Nico looked like he was going to start drooling at the prospect of eating that dip.

"I just don't get it," Grover muttered. "How could somebody as horrible as Gabe, get to eat something as wonderful as seven-layered bean dip?" By the end of his question, Grover sounded wistful at the thought of eating the dip as well.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Thalia sat straight up at that comment, her eyes blazing with anger. She glared at the book and said, "And he even has the _nerve _to make Sally pay for it—and with money from her _clothes_ budget. Oh my gods, Aphrodite is going to have a fit when she hears this!"

Thunder rumbled across the valley, as if agreeing with Thalia.

"**Yes, honey," my mother said.**

Thalia huffed, and crossed her arms. She leaned against Nico again, who had looked a little down when Thalia moved away from him, but he perked up when she leaned against him again.

"I wouldn't have called him _'honey,'"_ Thalia muttered darkly. "I would have said something along the lines of—"

She was cut off by Annabeth starting to read again—a little louder than was necessary, though.

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"**We'll be very careful."**

"I would total it the first chance I got," Rachel mumbled. Percy just grinned at that statement, knowing that something like that would happen.

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He didn't interrupt it, you loser!" Annabeth shouted. "_You_ made him give you the money!"

Connor wondered if he should tell Annabeth that she was talking to a book, but given the current state of her mood, he felt that mentioning it wouldn't be very good for his health.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everybody laughed gleefully at this comment, hoping that Percy really did that.

"Now _that's _what I'm talking about," Clarisse muttered, smirking at just the idea of hurting Gabe. Thalia had an evil smile on her face, quite possibly thinking of more ways to torture Gabe. Everyone backed away from that smile.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"Uhh . . . that was sarcasm, right?" Connor asked.

"No, Connor," Percy said sarcastically. "Everything that I had said was in no way sarcastic at all."

Connor pouted as almost everybody snickered (Katie wasn't really paying attention). "There was no need for the sarcasm," Connor mumbled.

"There's always need for sarcasm," Percy said with a smirk. "It's what makes the world interesting." Connor groaned.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"Percy, I'm pretty sure you just made his only brain cell go into over-load with the weight of your sarcasm," Nico stated, and then laughed. Thalia elbowed him in the stomach, but also laughed.

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"**Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"Which isn't that hard to believe," Annabeth murmured. "She is very smart."

"Smarter that Percy, that is," Thalia teased.

"Hey!" Percy cried, as everyone laughed. "I'm plenty smart!"

Thalia shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, Captain Crawfish."

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

The boys in the clearing (except Percy, who had just enough sense not to say anything) started to groan at that last sentence.

"How many more pages are left, Annabeth?" Connor whined.

Annabeth just sighed and said, "Like, four more. I'm sure even _you_ can wait that long. And if you stop commenting so much, we might get done faster."

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

"Finally," Thalia grumbled to Nico. "No more ink wasted on that pig."

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car.**

"Now, that's just plain rude," Katie accused. "He didn't even offer to help you."

Percy shrugged. "I wouldn't have wanted him to help anyways," he admitted. "He might have gotten my mom's things all messed up."

**He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bg. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving!" Annabeth pointed out. "He's only twelve.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

"Oh my gods!" Connor yelped. "Now Annabeth is infected, too! This disease just keeps getting worse and worse."

Percy rolled his eyes. "You know," he said, "if this disease was real, you," he pointed to Connor, "Travis, Grover, and Nico would all be infected by now."

"That is true, though," Katie stated. "You guys yelled 'Busted!' in the first chapter, right before the Grover in the book said it. That means you're all 'infected.'" She made air-quotes around the word 'infected.'

Nico looked shell-shocked. "I can't believe it," he whispered. "I'm thinking like _Percy_!"

Connor and Travis had equal looks of shock on their faces, while Grover just rolled his eyes.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so made I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I bade the same hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture—**

"And we all know that Gabe truly is from the pits of Hades," Annabeth mumbled.

—**a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

Everybody started laughing and cheering, now that Gabe had gotten something done to him almost as bad as what he did to Percy and Sally.

Travis took his arms from around Katie and put them straight up into the air, like a ref would do at a football game. "It's good!" he shouted.

That made everyone laugh harder.

Once she could talk, Annabeth read on, although a giggle would slip through now and then.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges—**

"Yeah, I'm sure that was it," Chris scoffed.

—**but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got into the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"I've wanted to do that practically all my life!" Nico exclaimed. "Except I would be jumping into a cab, and yelling 'Follow that car!' but that's close enough, I guess."

Thalia pinched him, but she smiled along with him.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes.**

"That sounds very cozy," Annabeth admitted. "I might have to go with your family next time," she told Percy.

Percy smiled at the thought. "My mom would like that," he said. _And so would I_, he added in his head.

**There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets—**

Annabeth shuddered at the mention of spiders. "Okay, forget what I said about cozy," she pleaded.

Percy just grinned. "Don't worry," he told her. "I got a tree nymph to keep them away. All she did was grow some type of plant around the outside, and the spiders never came back."

"Which nymph?" Grover asked.

Percy thought for a second. "I think it was the youngest one . . . Minerva; that's her name."

Grover nodded. "She's really good at that stuff. She's actually Juniper's second cousin."

"Can we talk about this later?" Rachel asked impatiently. Grover and Percy got quiet, and Annabeth started reading again.

** —and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"Not that it stopped me," Percy said smugly.

**I loved the place.**

"You love anyplace that's near water," Chris accused.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Well, no, duh," Thalia explained. "It's next to the sea."

Percy snorted. "Thank you for that obvious statement, Pilot Acorn."

"Something really weird is going on," Nico said. "Percy is actually making up somewhat-decent insults. I'm scared."

Connor caught on. "You're right," he whispered. "Has Annie been teaching Percy or something? Like, Insults 101?"

Annabeth growled. "Don't call me _Annie_!" she schreeched.

Connor cowered and Nico held his hands up defensively, just in case she got her hand around a rock.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"Your mom seems to love being near the ocean almost as much as you do, Percy," Nico stated. "It's almost as if the sea is her life source . . . almost connected to her." By the end, Nico was almost talking to himself.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Dude, _what_ is with all of the blue food?" Connor asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"You're so impatient, bro," Travis told his brother.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue.**

"And it doesn't hurt that blue just so happens to be my favorite color," Percy smirked.

"I _would_ say that you're being smug," Nico started, "but I don't want to ruin my chance to have more blue cake."

**She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

"You're so lucky," Travis whined. "I wish my mom did stuff like that."

**This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—**

Thalia looked disgusted. "I don't know anyone who'd want to call themselves _Mrs. Ugliano_." She said it like someone would say a curse.

—**was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

Rachel snorted. "A streak? You have way more than a streak of rebelliousness. If we could bottle all of the times you've been rebellious, we'd have to get a bottle the size of the U.S."

Percy scowled at her while everyone else snickered and chuckled.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.**

Travis and Connor moaned at the mention of food. Nico licked his lips, while Grover started to drool.

**Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"How is she doing with that anyway?" Katie asked Percy.

"She's almost done with her story," he told her. "She just needs to get it published."

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too."**

"Well," Thalia said. "I don't know about the handsome and powerful part, but you did get pretty tall."

"I think he's all those things, and more," Annabeth said, smiling and giving Percy a kiss.

"Thank you," he told her when she pulled back.

"**You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Now, if you would just grow a beard, wear Hawaiian shirts, and carry around a fishing pole everywhere, you'd look just like him!" Nico said, gleefully.

"And if you grew your hair out longer, got paler, and wore clothes with the damned sewn into them, then you'd look exactly like Hades . . . which wouldn't really be an improvement," Percy shot back.

Nico pouted, but Rachel said, "Girls, girls, I think both of you look perfectly fine. Now stop squabbling and let Annabeth finish reading."

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish h could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"He really is very proud of you," Annabeth said. "When I was creating a temple on Olympus to my mother, I heard him boasting about how much better you were than the original Perseus."

Percy smiled proudly.

"Great job, Annabeth," Connor mumbled. "Now he's going to have an even _bigger_ ego."

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"You're also brave, loyal, nice, caring . . ." Annabeth said

"Don't forget good at fighting, great at Pegasus riding, and deep sea diving . . .," Rachel added.

"A good friend, competitive, always good for a joke . . .," Grover continued.

"Outgoing, strong, forgiving, trustworthy . . .," Katie said.

"Alright!" Thalia yelled. "We get it! Percy is an amazing human being . . . Now can we just read?"

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean . . . when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

Connor looked confused."Do you mean to tell me that you stay in the same cabin that—Ouch!"

Katie had kicked him in the leg that time, instead of his arm. "Don't—_even _—say it," she hissed.

"**But . . . he knew me as a baby."**

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

"Ouch," Chris muttered. "That was a low blow."

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember . . . something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

Thalia tried to feel happy that Percy had a father that visited him, albeit briefly. It seemed a little unfair that Poseidon had visited Percy, and that Hades had stayed with Nico when he was a kid, but her own father hadn't given her anything to show that he cared for her.

Nico, sensing Thalia's mood, put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me . . . **

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

The demigods in the clearing looked at the book sadly. They'd all gone through that faze: hatred and abandonment. They'd gotten over it, but it still crossed their minds from time to time.

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think . . . I think we'll have to do something."**

"**Because you don't want me around."**

"Percy!" Annabeth chided. "Don't say that to your mom. It's going to break her heart."

Percy looked at the ground. "I wasn't thinking," he agreed. "And no comment from any of you," he added, pointing to the Stolls, Thalia, Nico, and Rachel, and the others.

"Aww," Nico whined. "And I had a good one, too."

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I **_**have **_**to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words** **reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy. **

"**Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Well, we all know that that's true," Clarisse reasoned. "But which one of us here is normal?"

Everybody turned and stared at her. Clarisse had been so quiet, they'd forgotten she was there. And what she just said only added to it.

Rachel spoke first. "Speak for yourselves," she scoffed. "I'm the only normal person in this clearing, including Grover."

"Grover has horns, and goat legs," Annabeth countered. "_And_ he's a Lord of the Wild. I don't think _anyone_ would think that was normal . . . well, maybe Juniper . . ."

Percy jumped in as Annabeth trailed off. "How could you consider yourself normal? You see into the future, you live in a cave, you see monsters for what they really are, _and_ you have a billionaire father. We seem a lot more normal than you do."

Rachel grumbled to herself as Annabeth started reading: **"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"Now is when you should have told her about Mrs. Dodds and the Fates," Grover prompted. "Would've made my job a _whole _lot easier."

"**Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

"And that's just what I need to hear," Annabeth said sarcastically. "Monsters trying to kill you."

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eyes, right in the middle of his head.**

"So you could tell that this person was a Cyclops, but you couldn't figure out that Tyson was one?" Annabeth asked, bewildered.

"I had better sight when I was younger," Percy defended himself.

"And wouldn't that Cyclops be your half-brother?" Katie asked. "Who's to say that Poseidon didn't just make the Cyclops go and watch over you?"

"I said that I had scary _and_ weird memories," Percy stated. "They're not all scary. And I don't know if Poseidon did send the Cyclops to watch over me or not; I'll have to ask."

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into.**

"They did _what_?" Annabeth shrieked. She started shouting in Greek, and didn't stop until Percy put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Annabeth," he told her. "I'm not the one that got hurt."

Rachel shivered. She might have been the Oracle, but she hated snakes almost as much as Annabeth hated spiders.

**My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

The whole clearing stared at Percy among hearing this story. Who would've thought that Percy could have done that as a baby, with no training or knowledge whatsoever?

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. **

"That, and the fact that you kept getting expelled," Travis said. "How _do _you get expelled from first grade?"

Percy didn't answer, so Annabeth started to read again.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword.**

"Scratch what I said before," Grover interrupted. "_Now_ would be a good time to tell your mom what happened."

**But I couldn't make myself tell her.**

Grover glared at Percy.

"What?" Percy asked indigently. "That was five years ago, Grover. I'm here now, so it shouldn't matter how I got here in the first place, right?"

Grover sighed and motioned for Annabeth to keep reading.

**I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Okay," Percy pleaded. "Before anyone says anything, I want to say this: I didn't want to end our trip because it was the first really normal day I'd had in a long, _long_ time. Plus, it would be the last time I would ever have a normal day. That deserves a little bit of credit, at least."

All of the people, who had been glaring or scowling at Percy, sighed. They had to give him some credit. They understood what he was talking about; they still remembered their last normal day before realizing they were demigods.

"**I tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it."**

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

"**Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"The best summer camp in the whole _world_ is what she means," Katie added. Everybody nodded in agreement—it was hard to argue.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born—talk to my mom about a summer camp?**

"Because he cares about you and wants you to be safe," Annabeth answered simply.

**And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp . . ."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her anymore questions she would start to cry.**

"I hate it when girls use their tears against you," Connor mumbled. "It makes it so hard to fight back." The other boys in the clearing were smart enough not to say anything.

Annabeth, Clarisse, Thalia, Katie, and Rachel all turned towards Connor and glared at him. Annabeth picked up a rock; Thalia made thunder rumble; Katie made a plant (poison ivy) grow out of the ground; Clarisse cracked her knuckles; Rachel picked up a big stick.

Connor gulped. "W-what I meant t-to say was: girls are beautiful and fierce creatures—I mean forces!—forces of n-nature, one that which men should never anger."

All of the girls put down their weapons, accepting his answer—for now.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"You're always having weird dreams, aren't you?" Rachel asked in awe.

"And they're never _just dreams_," Annabeth corrected. "They have to be these prophetic dreams that shows him visions of the past, present, and future, and gives him answers to problems he has going on."

"Wow," was all Rachel could think of.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle—**

Annabeth sniffed. "I would've been more impressed if the bird was an owl," she said.

—**were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

_Zeus and Poseidon are _definitely _fighting_, Rachel thought to herself. _But what are they fighting about now?_

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons.**

Thalia looked a little smug at this, while Percy scowled a tiny bit.

**The horse reared up and kicked the eagle's wings.**

Now it was Percy's turn to be smug, and Thalia's turn to pout.

**As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everybody looked weary at that. Almost everyone in the clearing knew who it was, but the people who didn't (cough, the Stolls, cough) looked at Nico.

_They all probably think it's my dad_, Nico thought bitterly. _They always think that when something bad happens._

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"That was the first day it rained at camp in a long time," Katie said.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"Yeah, Percy. Didn't your dad know that hurricanes come later in the summer?" Travis teased.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover all shivered at the reminder of what was coming next.

Grover remembered how frantic he had been to get Percy to camp in time; Annabeth remembered how weak and pale Percy had looked when she first saw him; Percy remembered how heart-broken he was after watching his mom disappear.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain.**

"I remember seeing that scene in a movie once," Rachel said. "Except the hero was shirtless and he was killing a demon."

"Oh, Grover was close to that," Percy snickered. "He was missing an article of clothing at least."

**But he wasn't . . . he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What was he then?" Nico asked. "Wearing a disguise or something?"

"You'll see," Percy told him, and Nico sighed.

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"That's right," Annabeth grumbled. "He wasn't thinking."

**My mother look at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

"I think that's rather insulting," Connor said. "Grover can be quite terrifying when he wants to be."

"Especially when he causes a Panic," Travis added.

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"Pretty much all of the important details," Grover mumbled.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

Thalia groaned. "You are so slow, Fish Flakes. You're making everything that much harder."

"_**O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" **_**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell**_** her?"**

"First of all, Grover," Travis said, "how dare you curse like that! Second of all, what is behind you? And third of all, of course he didn't: he's Percy."

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be . . .**

"Grover!" Travis chastised, putting a hand over his heart. "I cannot believe you would just walk around without your pants on! That is rather rude of you!"

Nobody could hold in their laughter (_Nobody_ not Nobody . . . aw, you get what I mean). Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "**_**Percy.**_** Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

"Ooh, Percy's in trouble!" Nico shouted.

**I stammered something about Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running exactly.**

"What _was _he doing—skipping? Jogging?" Chris teased.

**He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters—**

The Stolls and everybody else started laughing hysterically. Nico hummed the song "Shake Your Grove Thing" and soon the Stolls joined in, causing more laughter. Grover just blushed and chuckled.

—**and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Percy finally figured out Grover's a satyr! That's great! And it only took him a whole year to get it," Thalia mocked.

"That's the end of the chapter you guys," Annabeth said. "And they should be announcing lunch right about . . . now."

When she said the last word, the conch shell sounded, signaling everyone that lunch was starting.

Connor and Grover jumped up and started running for the path out of the clearing. The only reason Travis and Nico didn't go with them was because Thalia and Katie were still lying on them, and the boys didn't want to drop the girls on the ground. And, there was another reason . . .

"AHHHHH!" Grover and Connor shrieked.

Connor also said, "That thing's trying to _kill _us!"

Percy and everyone else—except for Nico—got out their weapons and ran for the path.

They all skidded to a stop at the end of the trail . . . and started to laugh—the kind of laugh where you're bent over and clutching your stomach while slapping your thigh. Travis and Nico even fell to the ground, rolling in the dirt, laughing like mad men.

The reason they were doing this was because two skeleton warriors had Connor and Grover in head-locks on the ground, but the funny part was that the skeleton warriors were wearing baby outfits. Another skeleton (also in a baby costume, with a binky in his mouth) was off to the side, filming the entire thing.

"_Blaa-ha-ha_!_"_ Grover bleated. "Get this thing off of me!" The skeleton that had Grover was now sitting on top of him, drinking pretend milk from a bottle.

"Grover . . . Connor . . ." Percy wheezed in-between laughs. "What . . . happened . . . to you . . . guys?"

"Less talky, more save-y!" Connor shouted. His skeleton had started crying (at least, that's what it sounded like; no one could be sure) and beating Connor with its rattle.

"I can tell you what happened," Nico giggled. "I set up a trap just in case anybody came looking for us. If they came this way, three skeletons dressed as babies would attack them. If they came from the south, a whole bunch of bones would catch them in a cage and play Rebecca Black's "Friday" until they started losing it. If someone came from the east or west, three hellhounds would jump out and . . . well, let's just say you don't want it to happen to you," Nico assured them. "The traps won't hurt you, just freak you out and embarrass you. But . . ." Nico paused to catch his breath from laughing too much, "but I didn't expect _this_ to happen," he finished with an evil laugh.

"Yes, hardy-har-har. This is hilarious," Connor called. "Now would you, _please_—get these things off?"

"They'll only leave when the baby with the camera gets tired, which should happen any moment," Nico snickered.

"Nico," Travis told him, "you are a freaking _genius_! I should have thought of this _years_ ago!" He and Nico bumped fists.

"Serves you right, punk," Clarisse told Connor. "That's what you get for being so hungry."

That sent everyone laughing again.

It took only a few more moments for the skeleton holding the camera to get tired. It yawned, stopped the camera, and gave it to Nico, who took it gratefully. Then it called to its skeleton friends, who got off of Connor and Grover, and walked back into the woods.

"Dude," Connor said, glaring at Nico, "That was _so_ not cool. You better delete that stupid tape!"

Grover got up and dusted himself off. "I agree with Connor," he said. "That was uncalled for and you could've warned us."

Nico shrugged. "I didn't know that it was going to work this way. And," he said, "I think I'll keep this tape for the next time the Hermes cabin plays a prank on me." Nico smiled his creepy smile, which had Grover shivering.

"I think that's enough excitement for know, Nico," Annabeth said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "We have to get to lunch, or everyone will come looking for us."

Nico's smile turned into a smirk. "Alright, Annabeth," he told her. Then he walked ahead of the group, whistling as he went.

Percy shook his head. "There is something wrong with that boy," he announced.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "As if we didn't know that before," she said. "Can we go get lunch now?"

Everybody started walking toward the mess hall, talking and chatting, oblivious to the fact that something was going to happen when they got back—something huge.

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><p><strong>AN: Was it great, or what? Since none of you can call me, the only way for you to tell me is to review!**

**A/N: Please don't forget to go on my profile, click the poll at the top of my page, and vote on who you want to come into the story! It would mean sooo much to me if you guys did. Also, I wanted to let you guys know that I might be posting a new story about the Kane Chronicles. And no I will not be sharing any info about it until I have everything sorted out.**

**And now, to answer the reviews:**

**Animal Charmer 11: That would be kind of awkward... =]**

**Torry 0220: Jee, thanks that means a lot!**

**CrazyDyslexicNerd: You are very welcome! I love showing the mini feud going on between Thalia, Nico, and Percy...It's almost like what me and my siblings do...**

**22mira22: I know! I was sad that the chapter stopped too! But all things good, must come to an end. Hopefully, you didn't die with how long this chapter took.**

**Perseverance: I want them to come too, but I'm going by what my fans (I think that's what they are. They never told me.) ask me to do. **

**clashercutie101: Thanks a lot! Sorry I kept you waiting though.**

**Pandombie: And I love that you love this story! And thank you for saying that...it really warms my heart!**

**Anniriel: Thank you! And if you vote on the poll, they just might come!**

**Blackhawk1997: I hate it when I get songs stuck in my head! Especially when I'm going to bed...**

**itsybitsybookworm: If you vote, they might come!**

**xxbella-edwardxx: I think Percy and Leo would make awesome friends too! But Jason and Percy would probably be the best of friends since Percy and Thalia seem to get along...for the most part. =]**

**SakuandSyao-CLAMPGirlForever: I never really thought of it like that, but thanks for telling me! And you're right...it does have a kind of homey atmosphere...**

**A/N: Until the next chapter, try not to get eaten by monsters...'cause that would really suck =] Love you guys!**


	5. Chapter Five: Settle Down Seaweed Brain!

**A/N: You guys must hate me so immensely that you can't put it into words. The only excuse I have for you is that school has been so hard to get used to with all the papers, and tests, and reading, and algebra, and drama, that I haven't had time to type _anything_. But I will try to get my priorities straight enough so that I can have the chapters in quicker. On the bright side, I just got the Son of Neptune today and it is so BEAST! I love it! Also, this is a spoiler, but the next book in the series is called The Mark of Athena! AAAAAH! I totally died when I read that. That's enough spoilers for today, so . . . . . . **

**A/N: Thanks to all of the people who voted for who they wanted to appear in the story, and the winner is . . . . in the story. Haha. I completely fooled you. But seriously, you'll have to read to find out. It's worth the wait though, I promise. This is un-betaified, so it might suck.  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>CHAPTER FIVE: MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING<strong>

Lunch had to be the most horrible time of day for Percy, Nico, Thalia, Annabeth, and everyone else who was in the clearing.

Percy and his friends hadn't been the only ones to receive the first book (though they were the only ones to get the whole series); it seems that some generous donor—cough, Apollo, cough—had dropped just enough to give the entire camp a book.

Percy was bombarded with questions as soon as he set foot in the pavilion.

"Did you really go to Yancy Academy, Percy?" Drew, the head counselor from the Aphrodite cabin, asked. "I could only guess so; I mean, look at his joke of a girlfriend," she _whispered_ to one of her cohorts. Lucky for her, Annabeth was out of ear-shot.

"Perce," Will Solace, head of the Apollo cabin, called, "Did you _really _battle the Chimera, burn a hole through the Gateway Arch, _and_ fall through the hole into the Mississippi River in one afternoon?"

Percy just walked on, shrugging.

A shout of exuberance came from the Ares cabin. "I _knew_, it was true!" Jasmine shouted in triumph. She held out her hand and one of the boys, Kyle, reluctantly slapped a few dollars into her hand.

Percy pushed his way through the throngs of people in hopes of reaching his table before someone asked the _big_ quest—

"So, Percy," a voice said in his ear. Percy turned and saw Clovis from the Hypnos cabin right next to him. Too late. "I heard this rumor that you and Annabeth—"

"Uh, sorry, Clovis but I'm really hungry, so if you don't mind . . ." Percy tried to push past but Clovis grabbed his shoulder. For a kid that slept the whole day away, he sure had a good grip.

"Just answer my question," Clovis reasoned. "Did you and Annabeth ride the Tunnel of Love ride? Like, for real?"

It was deathly silent in the pavilion when Clovis finished his question. All eyes were on Percy, waiting for his reaction. If he blushed, they would definitely know it was true; if he just didn't answer the question, then they would still know it was the truth. It was a lose/lose situation.

It's a good thing Thalia was such a good friend.

She stood up, cleared her throat, and looked solemnly at the pavilion of demigods, whose attention was now on her. Thalia then proceeded to yell, "FOOD FIGHT!"

She picked up her spaghetti and threw it at the nearest target: the Ares table. She had perfect aim. The food made a satisfying _squish!_ sound as it slammed into the middle of the table, spewing everyone sitting within a three foot radius.

You could probably guess what happened next.

The entire Ares cabin took the food from their plates, throwing it every which way, hitting almost every table. Pretty soon, the whole dining pavilion was in an all-out food war: spaghetti flying, potatoes shooting across the room, corn sticking to people.

The only people that didn't get hit in the cross fire were the ten people who read in the clearing. They had all scurried out as soon as the first spoon of sauce sailed.

"I can't believe you did that!" Annabeth exclaimed.

Thalia shrugged. "I had to have a plan just in case something went wrong. And what is more wrong than asking about something embarrassing that happened over five years ago?"

Travis and Connor had huge grins on their faces. "That was so awesome," Travis yelled. "Did you see the look on Drew's face when we nailed her with that guacamole?" He and his brother smacked a high-five.

"That was priceless, bro!" Connor agreed.

Percy looked relieved to just be out from the center of attention. "I owe you one, Thalia," he said to the Hunter. "You really saved my butt."

Thalia smiled. "No, problem. You would've done the same for me."

Percy smiled back.

Connor and Travis and Nico kept up a constant dialogue from the food fight, exclaiming about how people looked when they got hit.

As soon as they walked into the clearing though, Percy stopped and stiffened.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked. "What's wrong?"

He could only point.

Everyone followed his finger. When they saw what he was pointing at, they all gasped.

Standing in the clearing were three people; two boys, one girl. One of the boys had curly black hair and dark brown eyes, and looked like a Latino Santa's Elf: pointy ears, cheerful face, and a very mischievous smile that you could not trust. He was wearing an army jacket with lots of pockets, and jeans. He had a map in his hand and a carpenter pencil behind his ear.

The other boy was the exact opposite. He had sky blue eyes; close cut blonde hair, with a scar on his upper lip that looked almost crescent shaped. He wore a purple work-out shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. In his hand he carried a bronze sword, like the kind you would see in the practice arena.

The third person was the girl. She had chocolate brown hair that was choppy, uneven, with little braids on the sides, and pretty brow— . . . no, wait they were gree— . . . actually, they were blue—well, let's just say that they were like a kaleidoscope, always changing. Her skin resembled that of a Native American, but it was too light to be considered fully Native American. She wore a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, jeans, running shoes, and a black snowboarding jacket. On her hip was a dagger, and in her hand was letter.

They were all in different poses: the Latino was sitting cross-legged on the ground; the boy with the scar was in the middle of a thrust, as if he was dueling an invisible person; the girl was standing, leaning to the left.

The only thing that was similar between the three was that they were all blindfolded, but the blindfolds were like that one way mirror thing you saw in cop shows: Percy and his friends could see the three intruder's faces perfectly. The other three only saw darkness.

As the three strangers held their poses for one second . . . two . . . Percy pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. He stepped in front of his group of friends, ready to defend.

The boy with the map spoke first. "Whoa! Who turned off the lights?"

The boy with the scar and the girl straightened and both said, "Leo?"

"Piper? Jason?" said the boy called Leo. "What are you guys doing in Bunker Nine?"

"The correct question is, what are you and Piper doing in the arena?" asked the boy that must be Jason. "And why is it so dark?"

"Look," said Piper, "I don't know about the second question, but both of you are wrong about the first. The _real _question: why are you two in the Aphrodite cabin?"

Now, Percy was the one to speak. "You're all wrong," he told them. "You are in a clearing in the forest and you're all wearing blindfolds. Now, tell me who you are, and why are you here?"

Jason, who had lowered his sword, now raised it again; Leo stood up, his hands smoking for some reason.

Piper seemed to be the only sane person there—though she still put her hand on her dagger hilt—as she said: "Jason, Leo. Take off your blindfolds."

The boys followed her instructions immediately; even Percy was tempted to do as she said.

Jason, Leo, and Piper all took of their blindfolds. They blinked a couple of times, getting their bearings. When they could see straight, they all focused on Percy, the only one with his weapon out.

Jason raised his sword and mimicked Percy, stepping protectively in front of Leo and Piper.

"I'm going to ask you again," Percy stated calmly. "Who are you and where are you from?"

Jason didn't move an inch. "We don't want any trouble; this is Piper McLean, that's Leo Valdez. I am Jason Grace.

Thalia gasped, her voice strangled. "Jason?" she asked tentatively.

Every single pair of eyes fell on Thalia, but she didn't notice. All she could do was stare into the only sky blue eyes that mattered.

Jason, Leo, and Piper all said the same thing, in different tone s of surprise. "Thalia?"

Then, without warning, Thalia ran to Jason and hugged him with all her might. Jason dropped his sword, a little bewildered, but returned the hug nonetheless.

Thalia just stood there, hugging her long lost brother, with no thought whatsoever about letting go. Percy and his gang stared at the two siblings in confusion; Piper and Leo looked on as if this were normal.

Finally, Piper tore her eyes away from the two and took in the small group before her. Her eyes rested on Annabeth. "Annabeth?" she said. "What are you doing over there? You're not even going to say hello?" She took a few small steps forward, but stopped once she saw Percy shift over to block her.

Annabeth looked at Piper in confusion over Percy's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I think you must have me confused with somebody else. I don't know you."

Now Piper looked confused. "Are you joking?" she said. "We've known each other for about two months now, after you brought us to camp. Don't you remember? You found us while you were looking for . . ." Then, it suddenly dawned on her. Piper's face paled. "Oh, no way," she said in disbelief.

Leo looked at Piper with concern. "What's wrong, beauty queen?" he asked.

"Leo," Piper explained, "I think we got sent back to the past."

Jason, who had been in Thalia's embrace, now raised his head. "What do you mean?" he asked. Jason took a step back, his hands on Thalia's shoulders, and looked at her face; Thalia stared back with tear filled eyes. "Thalia looks just like she always does, except a little more . . . teary."

Piper shook her head. "Not that far back; a few months at best," she explained. "But we did go back in time because that," she pointed to Percy, "is Percy Jackson."

Now Leo and Jason looked a little surprised. They both took a long look at Percy, who was just staring there with a confused expression on his face.

"Do you mean _the_ Percy Jackson?" Leo asked. Piper nodded. "Percy Jackson. Annabeth's missing boyfriend?"

At that, Percy looked downright dumbstruck. He lowered Riptide and stood straight up. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I don't know who you are, or how you know me, or who you got your facts from, but I am _definitely_ not missing."

Jason, Piper, and Leo all glanced at each other, their faces identical with worry.

Jason spoke first. "Maybe we should explain," he stated.

*. . .*. . .*

It took all of about half an hour for the trio to explain everything: Percy missing and possibly at the Roman camp; Thalia and Jason being reunited; the quest they undertook to save Hera and Piper's dad; the Argo II; Porphyrion rising; even Festus got his chance to shine.

Thalia was sitting next to Jason, holding his hand as he told about how they were reunited. She had to be about the only partly happy person in the whole clearing.

Everybody else was in a state of shock, heartache, disbelief; if you could think of it, that's how they felt. Another war? And after all they had had to go through, now instead of Titans, it was giants. Plus, what was up with the Roman camp? How was that even possible?

These questions and more bounced around inside all of their heads, but none of them fared worse than Annabeth and Percy.

Annabeth had been reduced to tears, sobbing in Percy's arms, as Jason, Leo, and Piper told about Percy's disappearance. She couldn't believe how quickly things had turned around; she thought that Percy and she would be able to date without worrying about these types of things for a while. Turns out she had only a few weeks—maybe two or three months—before it would all come crashing down.

Percy? Well, he felt exactly the same way, only slightly different. He was also suffering from heartbreak—being separated from Annabeth for who knows how long was unbelievable, horrible—but he was also worried for himself. Where was he? Was he safe? Did he die and go to the Underworld? Did he forget his memory as well?

According to Leo, back in their time, it was just going on July, and the _Argo II_ was almost complete, and that they were going to sail for the Roman camp—or Camp Jupiter, as Jason called it—on summer solstice.

It was silent for a while after the trio had told their story, as everyone tried to digest what they had said.

Percy, although the most knocked off balance, spoke first. "Well," he said, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat and tried again. "There has to be some reason that you were all brought back in time."

Jason shook his head. "I don't know why, either. But it seems to me that—" Jason cut off abruptly, his eyes going to Leo's back. "Leo, what's that on your back?"

Leo looked confused. "What? Is it a spider or something?" Leo strained his neck, twisting and turning, trying to get a good look at his back. It was amusing to watch.

After a few moments, Leo gave up, and instead reached back and plucked the thing that was attached to his shirt. He brought it forward and stared at it. "It's a note," he announced.

"Let me see that," Percy said. Leo passed the note to Percy. Percy took it and looked at it for a second before clearing his throat and announcing:

"_Dear Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, and friends,"_ Percy read. _"We bet you're wondering why it is that we sent Jason, Piper, and Leo back in time. If you're reading this note, we can only guess that you haven't figured it out, which is very disappointing, seeing as you've got girls with a lot of brains at that camp. _

_We sent them back so that they could hear your story, Percy. They have been living at camp for the past few months, oblivious to the great deed you have done for Olympus, and vice versa. We are hoping that by doing this, you will all know what to do when the time comes for you to go back to your time periods. We hope that this will not alter the future in anyway, but if it should, you should know that it isn't your fault. It is ours. This is sort of our advice to you all. And now, a warning._

_After you finish the Percy Jackson series, a new book will arrive. We cannot tell you the name, but we can tell you that it is written by the same people who wrote the Percy Jackson books. This will be the start of a new series, one about the seven half-bloods of the prophesy. You already know the first five: Percy, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth. The other two you have yet to meet. We can only hope that Hera does not find out about this because if she does, it will not be good for any of us. Stay hidden._

_ Good luck and Good reading._

_ The Maiden Goddesses,_

_ Athena goddess of Wisdom_

_ Artemis goddess of the Hunt_

_ Hestia goddess of the Hearth_

Everyone was quiet as Percy finished reading. They sat there in a stunned silence.

Then, Piper spoke. "Well, I _have _been wondering about what happened," she admitted. "I mean, when I first got there, everybody at camp was so worried about you, Percy. And when anybody spoke your name, they said it like you were the most important person at camp, and they held you to the highest honor. It was bittersweet."

Percy half-smiled, happy that his friends cared about him so much.

"So," Jason said, "did you guys start very far on the book before we got here?"

Thalia shook her head. "No, we're only just starting, but you made it in time for the interesting part, though," she said smiling at her brother. Jason smiled back. She then filled the newcomers in with what was going on in the book

Annabeth picked up the book from where they had left it to go to lunch. "Well, I guess we should just start from where we left off," she announced. "Thalia, I think it's your turn."

Thalia took the book from Annabeth's outstretched hand. She flipped to the correct page, and read, **"My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting."**

Percy grimaced at the title, not liking what was coming next in the story.

"Bullfighting?" Leo asked, a little dumbstruck. "Why would she need to teach you bullfighting?"

Nobody answered his question, so Leo just shut up, figuring it would be in the book.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I don't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"Well, duh," said Katie, who had been quiet ever since lunch. "The road is pretty much a straight shot to camp."

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

Everyone in the clearing, even the new comers, looked at Percy weirdly for that statement.

"Shag-carpet pants?" Grover repeated testily. "Where the heck would you get shag-carpet pants?"

Percy shrugged, but Nico said, "Oh, you would be surprised."

"And how would _you_ know that, Nico?" asked Annabeth. Her eyes were still red from crying, but she had calmed down a little.

Nico smiled his creepy smile, but said nothing.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo—lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Grover harrumphed while the others snickered. Percy shot him a sympathetic look, but even he couldn't hold back his smile.

"I didn't know you did petting zoos, Grover," Travis teased.

"I don't," Grover snapped.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom . . . know each other?"**

Connor, Leo, and Travis snickered. "You make it sound like they're dating," Nico stated.

Grover blushed. "It did break the tension in the car though," he admitted, his earlier anger gone as he remembered how scared he had been that day.

Percy, realizing what Grover thinking due to their empathy link, said, "Don't beat yourself over something that happened years ago, G-man. You did all that you could."

Grover shrugged. "I'll try, Perce," he said.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"**Watching me?"**

Chris shook his head. "First you're dating Sally, and now you're stalking Percy," Chris accused. "What weird thing _haven't _you done?"

Everybody laughed as Grover blushed.

"Lay off you guys," Percy pleaded. "You know that's not what he meant."

"But it's not funny when you think about it that way," Thalia stated. Then she started reading before Percy could argue.

"**Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I **_**am**_** your friend."**

"You're not my friend," Percy said. Everybody turned and stared at him.

Grover's face fell. "Wha—what do you mean I'm not your friend?" he asked, heartbroken.

Annabeth punched Percy in the gut. "That's mean, Seaweed Brain," she told him. "How could Grover _not_ be your friend?"

Percy regarded her. "Because in order to be my friend," Percy explained, "then Grover would have to stop being my _best_ friend, and I will never let that happen."

Grover perked back up. "Thanks, Percy," he said. Percy grinned.

"**Um . . . what **_**are **_**you exactly?"**

"**That doesn't matter right now."**

"A straight answer," Percy groaned. "That's all I ask for from you people. But do I get it? No."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Even if we did give you straight answers, it would take you longer to figure things out."

"For instance," Thalia said. "If Annabeth would've said that she loved you right away, you guys never would've gotten together." Rachel snickered.

Annabeth and Percy blushed.

"**It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"A donkey?" Piper asked. "That was your first guess? A donkey?"

Percy shrugged. "It was kind of a lot to take in at the time . . ."

"And being a little slow also helps with that," Nico teased.

Percy glared at the son of Hades.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty **_**"Blaa-ha-ha!"**_

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

"**Goat!" he cried.**

"**What?"**

"**I'm a **_**goat**_** from the waist down!"**

"**You just said it didn't matter."**

"For once, he's right, Grover," Annabeth agreed. "You did say it didn't matter."

Percy nodded his head. "That's right—" he said. Then Percy realized what Annabeth had said. "HEY!" he yelled indignantly. Annabeth laughed and kissed his cheek. That calmed him down.

Piper smiled at that. The Annabeth in her time rarely ever looked so happy. She would obviously miss Percy when he really did disappear.

"_**Blaa-ha-ha! **_**There are satyrs that would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

"That's really an insult to your kind?" Leo asked.

Grover nodded. "One of the worst insults ever," he admitted. Leo looked apprehensive. He was pretty sure that he had thought they were donkeys as well on his first day at camp . . .

"**Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like . . . Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"**Were those ladies at the fruit stand a **_**myth**_**, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

"**So you **_**admit**_** there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"That's right, Prissy," Clarisse muttered. "Feel proud about the one thing you were right about."

"**Of course."**

"**Then why—"**

"**The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious.**

"To everyone else it is," Connor said. "To Percy . . . not so much."

Everyone laughed at that, but Percy kept his cool. He just smirked.

"**We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

"**Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

"Um, what exactly was chasing you?" Jason asked.

Percy glared at Nico, who looked guiltily back. "It should say in the book," Percy said.

"**Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

"**Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"**Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"**Grover!"**

"**Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster please?"**

"She was driving as fast as Gabe's piece of junk could go," Percy said, defending his mom. The way Percy had said his step-father's name gave Piper, Leo, and Jason a distinct impression that Percy didn't like him.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"No," Chris agreed. "You just dream up all kinds of prophetic dreams that give you visions of the past and the future, and sometimes even the answers to our problems."

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"They really should take those down," said Katie.

Piper looked confused. "Why?" she asked.

"Because the last time someone picked those strawberries," Thalia started. "Well, it wasn't pretty."

Piper's face took on a slightly green tint.

"**Where are we going?" I asked.**

"**The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

"**The place you didn't want me to go."**

"Percy," Annabeth chided. "Can't you tell that this was hard enough on her?"

Percy just looked down, not saying anything. Annabeth felt immediately terrible about having said that. She wrapped her arms around Percy and rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her as well, grateful that she was with him.

"**Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

"**Because some old ladies cut some yarn."**

Annabeth flinched at this and hugged Percy to her even tighter.

"**Those weren't old ladies," Grover said, "those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact that they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to . . . when someone's about to die."**

"**Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"**No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

"**You meant 'you.' As in **_**me**_**."**

"**I meant **_**you**_**, like 'someone.' Not you, **_**you**_**."**

"**Boys!" my mom said.**

"Wow, Grover," Nico said. "Even I got confused by that, and I'm the most confusing person here."

Thalia stared at him for a second, smacked him upside the head, and rolled her eyes.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"Did you ever find out what that was?" Rachel asked. Percy shook his head.

"**What was that?" I asked.**

"**We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring me. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Hey!" Travis shouted. "Your mom ignores you just like I do!"

**I didn't know what **_**there**_** was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really **_**hadn't**_** been human. She's meant to kill me.**

"Are you sure about that?" Connor asked. "Because I personally thought that she was going to ask you to tea."

Annabeth grabbed a rock and threw it at him.

Connor ducked, and the rock sailed over his head. "Ha!" he cried triumphantly. "You miss—ouch!" Turns out, the rock had ricocheted off a tree and had smacked Connor in the back of the head.

Everybody laughed as Connor rubbed his wound.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner . . . and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about it, the hair rose on the back off my neck.**

"Oh, no," Thalia gasped, realizing what was going to happen.

**There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling **_**boom!**_**, and our car exploded.**

"WHAT?" Thalia, Annabeth, and Jason shouted at the same time.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"**Percy!" my mom shouted.**

"**I'm okay . . ."**

Thalia growled, "You better be." Then she glared up at the sky. Thunder grumbled in the distance.

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation.**

Now Annabeth also glared at the sky. The thunder sounded again, only this time it sounded slightly worried.

**We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the seat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

"That really did suck," Grover said. "I got knocked out and Percy had to drag me over the line."

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are part barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

Grover's eyes turned misty as he smiled.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

"What is it with you and food, Grover?" Nico asked.

Grover blushed and shrugged.

"**Percy," my mother said, "we have to . . ." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Jason gasped. "The _Minotauro_," he whispered.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—?"**

"**Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"**Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"_**What?"**_

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Was that supposed to be compliment?" Thalia asked Percy.

Percy thought about it for a second. Then he decided to take the safer route and said, "Yeah, it was."

"**That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

"As if he's going to leave her," Clarisse said.

"**Mom, you're going too."**

"See, I told you," Clarisse said, triumphantly.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

"**No!" I shouted. "You **_**are**_** coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

"**Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

"You know, you weren't very helpful with that," Percy teased Grover.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming towards us, making his grunting snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he **_**couldn't**_** be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head . . . was his head. And the points that looked like horns . . .**

"Finally, he starts to get it!" Travis exclaimed.

"**He doesn't want **_**us**_**," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

"**But . . ."**

"**We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at that thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

At that moment, it clicked for Leo and Piper. "The Minotaur!" they exclaimed together. Percy nodded his head.

Leo looked at Percy in awe. "How did you even _survive_ that thing?" he asked.

"I honestly don't know," Percy said truthfully.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

"**I told you—"**

"**Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"And here comes Percy's temper," Nico muttered.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through the waist-high grass.**

"And of course they hadn't cut the grass yet," Annabeth muttered under her breath. "They're supposed to always keep it cut, precisely for moments like these."

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. he was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of **_**Muscle Man **_**magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—**

"He wore what?" Nico shouted. Then he started laughing, rolling back and hitting his head on the ground.

—**I mean, bright whit Fruit of the Looms—**

This caused some other people to join in laughing, though Nico was still the loudest.

—**which would've been funny, except the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"You are very observant," Jason said.

"Thanks . . . I guess," Percy said.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points that you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster alright. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

"**Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"**But he's the Min—"**

"Don't say his name, Fish Face!" Thalia yelled.

"**Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"I still haven't figured out what that means," Leo grumbled.

**The pine tree was still too far away—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"**Food?" Grover moaned.**

"**Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

"**His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

"I knew something like that was going to happen!" Rachel exclaimed. "Bad things always happen to horrible people."

_**Not a scratch**_**, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Oops," said Chris and Leo.

**Oops.**

"NO!" Nico yelled. "Now the virus has even infected Leo! Oh, dear gods, will there be no end to this horror?"

Leo, Piper, and Jason all turned to Annabeth for an explanation.

"Whenever somebody repeats something that Percy has said in the book," she explained, "Nico believes they are infected with Percy Brain Syndrome." She rolled her eyes.

"So far," Rachel added, "Thalia, Clarisse, Annabeth, Grover, Connor, Travis, and Nico have all been 'infected.'"

Jason, Piper, and Leo all nodded.

"**Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way—directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"**How do you know all this?"**

"**I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"Selfish?" Katie asked. "It is completely impossible for Sally to be even the smallest bit selfish."

"**Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

"I knew I would only drag you down, Perce," Grover said glumly. "I'm sorry."

"I just seemed to have gone deaf, and didn't hear a single thing you said, Grover," Percy retorted.

"But—"

"Still deaf," Percy repeated.

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

Annabeth grabbed hold of Percy's hand, who had gone quiet again. She knew that it was hard for him, listening to this, and that the worst was yet to come.

Percy, who was lost in thought, looked down at Annabeth and gave her a small smile. It was like she could read his mind.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not towards me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

Piper gasped. "Oh, dear," she whispered, knowing what was going to happen now.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

"All you had to do was get past my tree and you'd have been safe," Thalia said gently, looking at Percy.

"I know that now," Percy sighed.

Leo just stared at Thalia, and not in the way he usually does. "What do you mean _your_ tree? Did you plant it or something?" he asked.

"Not exactly . . ." Thalia said. She started reading to avoid his questions.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

Grover started sniffling. "She's such a nice lady," he said.

"**Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"**Mom!"**

Percy put his face in his hands as Thalia read this, knowing exactly what was coming next. _If only I hadn't just stood there_, he thought. _I could've saved her._

Annabeth tried to sooth Percy by rubbing his hair, but it didn't help much. Even Clarisse couldn't say anything about this. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is just cry. Children of Ares always appreciated bravery.

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply . . . gone.**

"**No!"**

And with that one word, Percy almost lost it. The ground started to shake and sprouts of water shot out of cracks, growing larger by the second. Everybody screamed.

But Annabeth lifted Percy's head and gave him a big kiss on the lips. The ground stopped trembling, and the water spouts slowly went down. Soon, the clearing was just as it should be; no cracks or water.

Annabeth pulled back and looked Percy straight in the eye. "Stop beating yourself up over this, Seaweed Brain," she said softly. "You're better than this and your mom would be very disappointed if she could see you right now."

Percy looked into Annabeth's stormy gray eyes and nodded. She gave him one more kiss and hugged him.

Thalia decided, to save him the embarrassment, she would start reading.

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

Taking a huge risk that he was about to get fried, doused, hit, and a lot of other things, Travis spoke. "Ah, yes," he said in a wise voice to Jason, Leo, and Piper. "Word to the wise about Percy: if you ever hurt any of his family or friends, or Camp Half-Blood in general, he will beat you to a pulp, then drown and slice you to bits. Afterwards, he might feel bad and go down to Hades to bring you back alive. So loyal is our Percy . . ." Figuring he had taken enough of a chance, Travis shut up.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"**Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"**Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid one, but better than no idea at all.**

"And it's mostly his stupid ideas that give us results," Nico whispered to Piper. "If he ever had a good idea . . . well, we'd probably all be dead."

Piper giggled a little bit at that and Nico beamed. Jason silently fumed and Thalia rolled her eyes, but she was a little annoyed too.

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"Of course it didn't," Rachel sighed.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

Almost everybody sat in stunned awe at that—even Thalia and Nico, who had heard the story before, were impressed by their cousin's bravery.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned in my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

"**Food!" Grover moaned.**

_Sorry, buddy_, Grover thought at Percy, using the empathy like between them.

_Deaf_, Percy thought back.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—**_**snap!**_

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

"Dude, that is so cool!" Leo exclaimed "Do you still have it?" he asked Percy. Then he seemed to register the mood in the clearing. Leo blushed and said, quietly, "Oh, uh, sorry. You don't have to show me if you don't wanna."

But Percy shook his head and smiled the ghost of a smile. "It's in my cabin," he explained. "I'll show you later."

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

The only thing that Jason could think to say was one word: "Whoa."

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, who needed my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

Annabeth shuddered mentally at that. She remembered how weak Percy had looked then, and how she just cast him off as the child of some unimportant god.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking man and a pretty girl—**

Travis, Connor, and Nico all wolf-whistled at hearing this. Annabeth lightly blushed, but she couldn't tell if Percy was because she wasn't looking at him. She looked over. He was.

—**her blonde hair curled like a princess's.**

Annabeth stared at Percy. "A princess, huh?" Percy blushed even more.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

With that, Annabeth and Percy both blushed tomato red as Travis, Connor, and Nico started humming the song 'He Could Be the One' by Miley Cyrus.

Everybody cracked up at that, breaking the tense atmosphere.

"**Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"That's the end of the chapter," Thalia announced, laying the book down.

Percy took a deep breath, knowing what he had to do. "Guys," he said, "I'm so sorry I went off like that, I just . . . I kind of got caught in the past. It's my fault. I'm sorry."

Everybody stared at him. Then Nico broke the silence. "Perce," he said. "We don't expect you to be able to hold everything in all the time. It'd be pretty weird if you did—and trust me, I'm all about the weird," he added. Then he got serious again. "Next time, just try and warn us so we can take cover; we won't be able to use Travis and Connor as human-shields if you don't."

"Hey!" the brothers cried indignantly as everyone laughed.

"Okay, so who's the next to read?" Leo asked excitedly.

"I'll do it," Nico volunteered.

Thalia handed him the book, as he settled into his spot next to her. Nico cleared his throat and read, "Chapter Five . . ."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Soooooo, did you like it? I'm sorry if it's a little moody, but I was feeling sick when I wrote it, so that's what I got. I just had to include the Camp Jupiter part becaue that really _is_ the name of the Roman camp in SoN. I also liked including that little part where Percy loses control. It seems to me that we didn't get to see much of Percy's earthquake powers in the PJO series, and that ticked me because Percy rules! **

**And now for the reviews:**

**ForgetTheWalls97: Well, if you're reading this, then I guess you already know what happened, huh? :D**

**Animal Charmer: Thanks.**

**CrazyDyslexicNerd: I'll your sisters for my brother! And thanks!**

**SakuandSyao-CLAMPGirlForever: Well, Percy had that vision about Annabeth when he took the dip in the Styx, right? So, I thought that that meant that Percy was vulnerable to everybody else except her, but hey, that's just one author's theory.**

**gingerroot15: Thank YOU!**

**Pandombie: I know! It took me, like, forever just to freaking narrow it down to those choices! DX But I hope you're happy with the story!**

**magicdemi-god223: haha Thanks**

**Anime Princess: I know! I wish they could've gotten together!**

**evast23: OMG SO DO I!**

**Percebethlover7: Don't worry, I will!**

**sashi91112:hahaha me too! And Thanks a bunch!**

**Sabaku no Koori: Yeah, it makes sense, and thanks, and Mine is The Titan's Curse and the Sea of Monsters**

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Try not to die when you read the Son of Neptune! :D**


	6. Chapter Six: Holy Zeus Poseidon Hades!

**A/N: Yeah, so, um, hi. I know that you're extremely pissed off at me for not updating in over . . . how long was it again? Oh, yeah, almost a year . . . heh. My bad. Well, there will be a longer A/N at the end of this chapter, because you'll probably want to read already. Go ahead and read then. :)**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER SIX: I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A HORSE<strong>

"**I Play Pinochle With A Horse," **read Nico.

"How can you play pinochle with a horse?" asked Leo. "And what the heck is pinochle? Is it like poker?"

Percy looked at Leo strangely. "You mean you didn't go see Chiron right after you got to camp?" he asked.

Leo shook his head. "The first thing I did when I got here was go hang out with my siblings—or half-siblings anyways," he added with a shrug.

Percy nodded his head slowly. Nico took this as a sign to read.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

Everyone in the clearing (yes, even Jason, Piper, and Leo) all turned to stare at Percy with different mixtures of incredibility and bewilderment. Percy just sat there, playing with a strand of Annabeth's hair and seemingly not paying attention, though Thalia was sure she saw the hint of a blush on his cheeks.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.**

"Ambrosia?" Piper asked, and Percy nodded. Piper frowned slightly at that—to her, ambrosia tasted more like a California egg roll.

**The girl with the blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Already in love with each other, I see," Connor smirked.

"For your information," Annabeth said, blushing ever so slightly, "Chiron actually ordered me to make sure he was fed ambrosia. I didn't even really want to be there."

"Oh, somehow I doubt that," Katie laughed. "Knowing you, Annabeth, you were probably bursting to ask him what he knew about the solstice."

"And then be horribly disappointed when you realize that he knows absolutely nothing," Thalia finished, smiling knowingly.

Percy huffed. "I find that horribly insulting."

"Good," said Thalia. "It was supposed to be."

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen on the summer solstice?"**

"And of course I was right," Katie smirked.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

Annabeth shook her head as she smiled. "I should have just stopped right there when I realized that this one," she playfully poked Percy in the shoulder as she said that, "knew absolutely nothing."

"And now I'm right," Thalia sighed.

"**I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I ****don't . . ."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"Missing the love of your life already, huh?" Connor asked in a would-be innocent voice.

Percy smiled. "You bet."

Connor frowned. It was no fun making comments like that if his prey was just going to react like that.

As if he could read Connor's mind, Percy smiled bigger.

**A husky blonde dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes—at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the back of his hands.**

"There is definitely more than a dozen, Perce," Chris said.

"Thanks for clearing that up for me, Chris," Percy said, sarcastically. "Really helped me out there."

"You're welcome," Chris said, smiling.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were a little nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck threw a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

If Percy expected anyone to make fun of him for that, he was very mistaken. Every one of them, including Clarisse, would have probably been in the same state as Percy had been.

"**Careful," said a familiar voice.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"Really, it was only a couple of days," Grover explained. "But you're right, I hadn't slept at all."

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops, and a bright orange T-shirt that said ****CAMP HALF-BLOOD****. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.**

"You know," said Percy. "I think that's how we all started to call you goat boy."

Grover sighed. "I kind of figured as much," he said.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And . . .**

Nico paused and looked sadly over to Percy, who was currently staring off into the forest as if it held some answer to a problem of his.

"**You saved my life," Grover said. "I . . . well, the least I could do . . . I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dry blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"I'm kind of regretting giving that to you now, Perce," Grover mumbled. "It only made you a little more depressed."

Percy focused on Grover with some difficulty. Then he smiled and said, "Actually, it made me feel a little bit better, if you can believe it. I probably would've beaten myself up a lot more if you hadn't gone back and get it."

Grover grinned. The atmosphere surrounding the group lightened considerably, and everyone else chuckled slightly.

"**The Minotaur," I said.**

"**Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"**

"**That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half-man, half-bull."**

"And he's already the annoying blabber mouth kid that drove me nuts when we had to work together," Annabeth laughed.

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

"**My mom. Is she really . . ."**

**He looked down.**

"That probably wasn't exactly the right way to tell him," Jason said. "That would only make it worse."

"Nah, it actually worked for me. I prefer to brood by myself, without people watching," Percy assured Grover.

"Ain't that the truth?" Nico said, exasperated. "The number of times I've walked in on this bum when he and Annabeth finish fighting, and he's laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling."

Percy blushed. "You weren't supposed to tell anybody that that, Coffin Master," he hissed to Nico.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the large pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

At that, Connor and Travis burst out laughing hysterically. They fell on top of each other, pounding the ground with their fists.

"Okay, what's wrong with you two _now_?" asked an annoyed Rachel.

Travis calmed down enough to explain as he said, "Percy c-called the pine tree b-b-beautiful, right?"

Everyone nodded their heads.

"And T-Thalia used to be t-that very same p-pine t-t-tree," Connor continued as Travis was overcome with a giggling fit. "Right?"

Again, everyone nodded, but more skeptically this time.

"So, t-technically," Travis finished, "that means that P-P-Perce called _Thalia_ _b-beautiful_!" He and his brother started to laugh uncontrollably again.

Everybody but Thalia, Percy, and Nico started to laugh as the realization hit them. Thalia and Percy glanced at each other, both blushing heatedly. They held each other's eyes for several seconds before dissolving into grins and snickering.

Nico was blushing harder than either Thalia or Percy, and looking down at his feet. But even he couldn't hold back his own laughter.

It took a good five minutes for everyone to calm down enough to listen to Nico read. Even then somebody would giggle at random moments.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"**I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off.**

"He did _what_?" Nico asked animatedly. "How is that even possible?"

**I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole in the middle.**

"Oh, never mind, then," Nico said. "That's much more reasonable."

"**Oh, Styx****!" he mumbled.**

"Grover! Mind your language!" Thalia reprimanded. Grover bit his lip to keep from laughing.

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr.**

"No, really, Percy?" Annabeth said sarcastically.

Percy gave her a sheepish grin as everyone else snickered, even Jason, Piper, and Leo.

**I was ready to bet that if I shaved off his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. **

"No!" Grover yelled, reaching up to wrap his arms protectively around his head.

"I'm not _really_ going to shave off your hair, Grover," Percy soothed, while the others just laughed. "Besides, I can clearly see your horns right there." He pointed to the top of his friend's head.

"Oh, right," Grover mumbled, blushing as the others cracked up.

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was that my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand and squeezed it as Nico read. Percy squeezed back gratefully.

Piper couldn't help but notice this quiet exchange. It was amazing, really, how the two of them seemed to know what the other needed before they realized it themselves.

She couldn't help but glance at Jason as she thought that. Then she mentally beat herself at the comparison; what she had thought was between them was nothing compared to Annabeth and Percy.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with . . . Smelly Gabe? **

"Well, isn't that a pretty mental picture?" Travis said, grimacing.

"That's Percy for you," Rachel explained. "Always the pessimist."

"Hey," exclaimed Percy. "I resent that!"

Everybody ignored him as Nico continued reading.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

"Or you could just live here and stop being the dufus that you are," Thalia teased.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

"Well, Percy," said Piper, speaking for the first time in a while. "You might be a pessimist, but at least you like to make people feel better."

Percy looked both oddly flattered and bewildered. "Thanks, Piper," he said. "It's nice to know that at least _someone_ knows I'm not all doom and gloom like the kid holding the book."

Nico frowned as several people snickered.

"**Yes it was. I was supposed to **_**protect**_** you."**

"**Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"**No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least . . . I was."**

"**But why . . ." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

"Grover, you should have given him the nectar right after he woke up," Annabeth said, frowning. He had still looked a little dizzy a few minutes later when she first met him.

"**Don't strain yourself," Grover said.**

"Well, there's no chance of that happening," Connor said in a "dignified" voice.

"**Here."**

**He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery hot, with the chips still melting.**

Most of the boys in the clearing, save for Percy and Jason, looked like their brains were melting, just to think about cookies like that.

"Percy," Travis all but moaned, "you have the single best mom _ever_!"

"Yeah, I know," Percy smirked.

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

Percy waited for the onslaught of teases and jokes at his thoughts, but, surprisingly, the only person who said anything was Leo.

"I know what you mean, Perce," he sighed. He had a feeling that Percy's mom wasn't exactly 'gone' like his was.

Percy clapped a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Your mom?" he asked.

"Yeah," answered Leo. "Fire." To emphasize his point, Leo willed his hand to catch fire.

There were several gasps of astonishment from the others who had never seen this, but Percy got the meaning loud and clear.

He nodded and withdrew his hand from Leo's shoulder. He didn't say anymore, for which Leo was kind of grateful; too many people say "I'm sorry" and it ticked him off.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

"**Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

"**What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

"**Sorry," I said. "I should have let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just . . . wondered."**

"**Chocolate-chip cookies. My mom's. Homemade."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

"**Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

Everybody laughed heartily at that.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."**

**"What do you mean?"**

"Vhat he means, Perce," Connor said in what everyone assumed was a German doctor. "is zat, if you drink more zan vhat he gives you, zhen you vill blow up into a very big flame, da?"

Percy couldn't even look at Connor for the moment. He just put his forehead in his hand and sighed. "Annabeth," he said. "It's time."

The reaction was immediate. All Annabeth did was lift an eyebrow, and the Stolls dived behind Leo and Jason, yelling, "Please! Have mercy!" Nico grabbed Thalia and Piper and pushed them into the woods, a look of sheer terror on his face. He tried to explain, but all he could say was, "You don't want to see this."

Grover yelped and scuttled towards Katie and Rachel. He snatched their arms and followed Nico, his face pale. Jason and Leo were staring at each other with freaked out expressions as Connor and Travis cowered behind their backs. Chris and Clarisse were the only two that stayed sitting in their spots.

For a few seconds, it was all chaos as everyone was running around screaming, and the Stolls praying to their father, that no one noticed Percy and Annabeth laughing their butts off. After everything had quieted down, their snickers were the only noise in the clearing.

"You guys should have seen your faces," Percy finally got out. He and Annabeth bumped fists.

Connor glanced at his brother as they peeked around Jason and Leo. "What?" he demanded.

Apparently, his expression was too much because Percy had to go excuse himself to pee.

By the time he came back, Jason and Leo were prying the Stolls hands off the back of their shirts, and everyone else was looking mystified. The moment Piper saw him, she said, "Explain," in her deathly serious voice.

Jason and Leo winced as Percy's eyes started to glaze over. Stupid charmspeak.

"Well, before we got back from lunch, Annabeth and I started talking about how the Stolls needed to back off a little bit with all of their jokes." Percy's voice was blank of all emotion as he explained. "So, we got to thinking of what we could do to get them to stop. We already knew that they were afraid of Annabeth. If we could just make them think that she was going to do something to them, they would be scared enough to stop."

When he finished explaining, Percy blinked several times and shook his head. He focused on Piper with a very strangled expression. Then Percy proceeded to get down on his knees and say, "I am not worthy! I am not worthy!"

Piper looked at him very strangely before helping him up. "Don't _ever_ do that again," she told him, "or I will personally have to put you in a mental hospital."

He smiled, and said, "Well, you're not the first one to say that, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to be the last. Just another very powerful girl in my life."

Percy made a point of looking at Annabeth and Thalia and Rachel and Katie and Clarisse, before shrugging.

Once everyone was settled, Nico picked up the book and continued from where he left of: **He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come one. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

"Is this where we figure out who Mr. D is?" Jason asked. He really wanted to get a picture in his mind of this guy.

Percy cringed. "Yeah," he answered truthfully. "I'm pretty sure he was the first god that I angered personally."

"You mean what everyone said was true?" Leo demanded. "You've actually got a full list of people that don't like you?"

Grover pulled out a piece of folded paper. He flicked his wrist, and it unfolded to about five feet. "Does this answer your question?" he asked.

Jason nodded, but Leo said, "Where do you put that if you don't have pants?"

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Stubborn fish," she muttered to Nico. He smirked and tried to keep in his laughter as he read.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught me breath.**

Piper sighed. "It is an amazing sight."

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. **

"That's because you're a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said in a very slow voice.

Percy made a face at her as the rest of them laughed.

**The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-**

"Annabeth's favorite kind," Percy said, knowingly.

**-an open air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns gleaming in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless, I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"And they're all in love with Percy," Connor stated. Piper, Leo, and Jason all turned to stare at Percy as he glared at Conner.

"They are not _in love_ with me, Connor," he said. "They just have a healthy liking for me. Calling me 'lord' and 'master' doesn't mean they love me."

"Mhmm," Connor hummed, not believing.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blonde-haired girl who'd spoon fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to him.**

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those painting of baby angels-what do you call them, hubbubs?**

Rachel turned to Percy. "Did you honestly just think that?" she asked him, incredulously.

He put his hands in a "Don't blame me" gesture. "Sorry, Dare," he said. "You know I'm not so good at remembering stuff."

Annabeth snorted. "Ain't that the truth?" she laughed.

**No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father.**

Grover nodded his head. "That's actually not a bad description of Mr. D," he admitted.

"But he is actually a terrible poker player," Nico intervened, and everybody had to agree with that.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite."**

"With Percy?" Chris scoffed. "Good luck with that."

**"The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron. . . ."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in a wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"You know, I thought you were a lunatic when you said that," Annabeth admitted. "I mean, there was no one there, to me, named Mr. Brunner."

Travis nodded his head. "That's what everyone thinks of him at first," he simply stated.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

"Why weren't _you_ playing, Wise Girl?" Percy asked. He'd always wondered, but now was a good time to ask. "I had to suffer next to Mr. D."

"You would've sat next to him even if I had played," Annabeth informed him. "I was just there because I wanted to make sure you were alright."

Percy blushed as the guys wolf-whistled and the girls cooed.

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Hey!" Grover cried. Percy snickered as Grover started to glare at him.

"**Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blonde girl.**

Thalia shook her head at Percy. "He just called her by name, Blubber Butt," she said, exasperated. "And you still refer to her as 'the blonde girl'."

"Oh, dry up, Miss Acid Rain," her cousin retaliated. "I was still a little in shock about all of this."

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

"The next paragraph is where Annabeth gets described," Nico announced to everyone. He shot a sly glance at Percy. "You better hope that your thoughts were good."

For a second, Percy looked a little worried. "Well . . . I'm _pretty _sure I remember that part of the day, but I can't be sure what it was that I thought."

Annabeth shot him a sharp glance from the corner of her eye. Then she smirked a little; her first thoughts of him were probably worse than his were of her.

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking.**

Piper looked Percy up and down. "Well, the age thing is probably the only thing that survived on that list," she told him. "But you actually got pretty toned and you actually look almost half a head taller than Annabeth now."

Percy had no idea whether to take that as a flattering compliment, or to just nod his head, because Annabeth's eyes had narrowed slightly, trying to detect any hidden message in Piper's words.

He settled on simply saying, "Thanks, Piper." Then, after a moment's hesitation, he let out a shaky laugh. "It actually took a little while for me to actually be taller than Annabeth. When I was fourteen, I remember being really intimidated by how much taller she was."

This got the desired effect—Annabeth laughed. "Are you talking about when we went to go rescue—?"

Percy nodded his head. "I honestly didn't know how someone as, I don't know, amazing as you could possibly want to dance with me," he said.

Now, Grover and Thalia's eyes widened in realization to what the couple was talking about. They both turned towards Nico, who was looking at the ground, stony-faced and silent.

Thalia scooted closer to Nico and laid a hand on his shoulder. "She's in a better place now, Ashes," she muttered to him. "Don't dwell on that."

Nico raised his eyes to hers, and nodded. But he didn't smile as he read the next lines. Everyone else just stared at each other in deep confusion, the trio from the future especially.

**With her deep tan and her curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.**

Annabeth turned to look at Percy. "Excuse me?"

"There's more here, hold on," Nico said, glancing at a desperate Percy.

**They were a startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Annabeth relaxed. "Alright," she stated. "I'll let you live—for now."

Percy just chuckled and planted a kiss on her temple. Nico pretended to gag next to Thalia, who snickered into her palm.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're awesome!**_** or something like that.**

Everyone from this time period all scoffed at Percy's thoughts.

"I don't remember thinking that," Annabeth teased her blushing boyfriend. "What I do remember thinking was, _Who is this short skinny kid that looks like he's been crying a lot?_ or something along those lines."

Percy made a face at her before turning to Nico, who was laughing behind the book. "You shouldn't be the one laughing, Ghost Buster," Percy told him. "If I remember correctly, when we first met, you were all up for thinking I was cooler than Mythomagic."

"Hey," Nico warned. "Don't go knocking the Mythomagic power."

Leo turned towards the son of Hades. "Mytho-whaty-huh? What is that?"

"It's this card game that Nico used to play when he was an innocent little guy . . . which was about two years ago," Thalia explained. She smiled fondly at Nico and shook her head.

Leo spread his arms. "Hey, I could be innocent, too."

Everyone turned to stare at him with looks rivaling that of Mr. D. Jason had his head in his hands, and Piper was shaking with silent laughter. Coming from previous attempts, this was one of his more pitiful ways of getting Thalia to like him.

Finally, Chris broke the silence. "Oh-kay," he said. "I'm just going to ask Nico if he can read now. Nico?"

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blonde hair flying behind her.**

Annabeth blushed as everyone laughed at her obvious attempt of making a speedy exit.

"And I don't drool," Percy said. After a look from some of the people in the clearing, he amended, "Anymore."

Connor joked, "And thus, the first friendship between the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena began."

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

"I just called him Chiron, Seaweed Brain," acknowledged Annabeth.

Percy shrugged. "Well, I knew him as Mr. Brunner."

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex–Mr. Brunner said. "I'm ****afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confuse, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D . . . does that stand for something?"**

Several people in the clearing face-palmed. Leo and Piper seemed to think that was a legitimate question.

"You're not supposed to throw names around right in front of Mr. D," Katie explained to them. "It's one of the worst ways to tick him off."

"That and being a demigod named Percy Jackson," Travis couldn't help but add.

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me as if I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

Leo snorted at Percy's answer, then became serious. "Would someone _please _explain to me this whole 'names-are-powerful-things' concept? Because I'm very lost."

Annabeth perked up immediately, while everyone else groaned quietly. She glared at them before turning back to Leo. "When you call someone by their name, they usually answer don't they?"

Leo nodded.

"Well, if you call, let's say, a Kindly One by their true names, they will automatically pick up on your location. This is the same with almost any monster or god out there. When you call something by their name, if it's a monster, they will come to see what has attracted its attention, and when they notice that you are a half-blood, they will most likely eat your face off."

Leo looked slightly queasy. "Oh. Well, then."

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in. "I'm glad to see you al****ive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call."**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a look out. But Grover ale****rted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to . . . ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"I wonder what Chiron did to the man?" Katie wondered aloud.

Everyone stopped to think about it for a moment before spewing out different scenarios ranging from a trip to Hawaii, to being mauled by bears in the Arctic circle; that last one was from Connor.

"Connor," Annabeth sighed, "I really don't think that Chiron would send a school teacher to get mauled by bears."

The younger Stoll shrugged. "It's a possibility," he stated.

Percy shook his head, but he was smiling. "Read, Nico, just read."

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

Thalia snorted. "Please, Kelp Head," she told him. "You might be Poseidon's only kid, but you're not _that_ special. Get over yourself."

Jason's brow clouded. "What do you mean, sis?" he questioned. "Hades only has one child, too—Nico, right?"

"But, Jason, I thought you had a friend back at Camp Jupiter who's a daughter of Pluto?" Piper asked him. "You said her name was Hazel."

"Oh, yeah," he said. "But that's Pluto—even though it doesn't really make a difference, I guess. Hey, where are you going?" Nico had gone stony-faced as the two future kids conversed, and now he'd gotten up and walked stiffly into the forest.

Percy stared after Nico's retreating figure with a distressed look on his face; after all this time, he had still not yet forgiven himself for Bianca's death. And even when Nico forgave him, Percy was still slightly guilty about the bad times that it had caused Nico.

He made to get up, but Annabeth grabbed his hand and forced him to sit down again. "Let him go, Percy," she told him in a soft voice. "He needs to get this off of his chest . . . alone."

He sighed, but stayed where he was. Thalia picked up the fallen book and began to read again.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know that we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

"And count on Mr. D to say something totally irrelevant to the important conversation," Chris whispered to Clarisse, who smirked slightly.

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

Leo snickered into his palm. When everyone looked at him weirdly, he explained, "That just made you sound like such a sissy, you know."

Grover blushed as he turned on Percy, the realization dawning on the clearing. Percy tried to keep from smiling at the look on his best friend's face. "Sorry, G-man," he mouthed.

**"You **_**do**_** know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. **

Rachel gasped. "Percy? The Perseus Jackson being cordial to an adult figure? Is that even _possible_?"

Percy made a face at the Oracle while several of his other 'friends' laughed; it was true, he had to admit that. It was very rare when Percy was respectful to an authority figure, godly or not.

**I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"He's not so fond of you, either, Perce," Nico said, strolling back into the clearing, hands deep in his jeans' pockets. His voice was calm and nonchalant, but Percy could see the tension in his young cousin's shoulders as he sat back down next to Thalia.

The daughter of Zeus opened her mouth to say something, but Nico plucked the book out of her hands and began reading, cutting her off.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the gr****eatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized**_** young men to know the rules."**

Travis had a look of confusion. "Um, I don't know about you guys, but I don't really think that Pac-Man is really that awesome."

Leo rolled his eyes. "That's probably because you've never beaten the final level," he scoffed. "What?" he added to everyone's stares.

"How'd you know that?" Connor said. "Travis has never gotten past the fifth level, and he's kind of forsaken the game ever since." Leo was looking surprised, but also slightly smug.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said.**

"Pause!" called out Rachel. "There it goes again! Geez, Percy, how come you were never this nice to me when we first met?"

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Or me?" she wondered.

Thalia and Nico and the Stolls also crossed their arms and said, "Or me?"

Everyone in the clearing was staring at Percy with an incredulous expression (save for the new trio, who just sat back, slightly humored by the proceedings) at not having gotten such a nice greeting at their first meeting. Most had started on a quest (Nico and Rachel), or a prank gone wrong at camp (Katie), etc.

Percy coughed into his hand to hide a growing smile. It sounded very suspiciously like, "Nico. Read."

**"****What is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

"I asked the same question," Thalia snorted. Percy just smirked at her statement, and at Nico's own evil smirk as he read the next line:

**Mr. D snorted "I asked the same question."**

The look on Thalia's face was enough to send all of those closest to her into mad hysterical laughter, i.e. her brother, her cousins, Annabeth, and Grover. The others laughed as well, though maybe not as hard as Percy and Jason.

**The camp director dealt all the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed on his pile.**

Our loving Goat Boy stopped laughing; his smile turned into a grimace; his eyes turned to glare at the Savior of Olympus. Percy shrugged his shoulders at his best friend, like, "What're you going to do with me?" as the others cracked up.

Several nymphs poked their heads out of their trees in annoyance at the demigods and satyr, before huffing and disappearing again. They were sure that this was going to go on for a while.

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I**_** was his star student. He expected **_**me**_** to have the right answer.**

**"Percy," he said, "Did your mother tell you nothing?"**

**"She said . . ." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. **

Now Percy's eyes turned sad and nostalgic, remembering that day on the beach so long ago, when he was young and less than slightly innocent. Annabeth noted that her best friend's eyes turned into a duller version of their usual sparkle, and lacked all of their light, making them turn dark and mysterious.

She reached out to grab his hand, and leaned her head on his shoulder. Percy's lips twitched slightly, and he placed his head on top of hers.

**"She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

Nico scowled deeply as he read over the next sentence: **"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

Piper raised an eyebrow. "I'm starting to see that this is typical Percy-personality. Am I right?" she asked the group, unaware to the affronted look on Percy's face.

Everyone pretended to think on that for a moment before all giving some form of assurance. "Yeah, pretty much" or "Kind of" or even "Damn straight" in Thalia's case.

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

Nico gaped at his elder cousin. "You never saw the film?" he questioned. Percy shook his head, slightly guilty for whatever reason. "Man, Perce, you sure missed out."

Jason and Leo shared a mystified look. "We didn't see any film when we got to camp," said Piper.

"Well," started Annabeth, "I know that Percy arrived knowing a lot more than you did, Nico, and having gone through much more traumatic events. Piper, how did you guys get here?"

Leo answered that one. "By crashing into the lake on a flying chariot during winter, coming all the way from the Grand Canyon, after dodging an attack by storm spirits." He took a large breath before adding, "What?" to all of the strange looks he was getting.

Percy nodded. "I think we're about tied on first entrances to camp," he said. "Though I've got about four other times over you guys; well, eight, counting the times that I left, too."

"No one can beat Percy on dramatic entrances and exits," Grover added, causing a wave of laughter to crash.

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know that you're friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the sho****e box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that we've all seen that look on Percy at _least_ a half dozen times," Travis said. He pulled on a blank face, that seemed both dazed and confused at the same time, with glazed eyes and a slack jaw.

Percy frowned over the guffaws. "I did _not _look like that," he grumbled. "Did I, Grover?"

The satyr breathed deeply as he fought another laugh in his throat. Percy stared at him. "Look!" called Connor. Pointing at Percy's face, he shouted, "There it is, there's the face!"

Much more laughing ensued before Nico finally got control of himself.

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not!**_

_"Not!" _yelled the Stoll brothers, right in Katie's ear. Then—"Ouch!"

**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"  
><strong>Rachel groaned. "Is food all you ever think about, Grover?" she asked him. "I'm not trying to embarrass you, I'm honestly asking."

"It's more like a nagging voice right next to my left ear," explained the half-goat.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

"I did not!" Grover brayed. "I was just deep in thought."

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're**** telling me there's such a thing as God?"**

"You mean you don't believe in Him?" Leo asked. All eyes turned to Percy as he thought it over.

With much deliberation, Percy finally said, slowly, "I don't _not_ believe in God, but because of my current status, and going back on my own experiences, I believe that our gods are slightly less than Him. He is probably the only divine being that I'm not expecting to see anytime soon"

A clap of thunder rolled out over the sky. "Zeus, calm down," Percy mumbled. "Sheesh. You'd think I'd just insulted your beard."

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capitol **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors;: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"I don't think Dad would be too happy to hear Chiron say that now," Annabeth whispered to Percy, who smiled at his girlfriend.

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them?"**

**And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

Similar thunder was heard in the clearing. Percy twisted his mouth at the irony of words he'd said in disbelief back then, and getting in trouble for it now.

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be more careful about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But their stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff."**

Annabeth chuckled under her breath. "'And stuff?'" she whispered

Percy blushed a dull pink at her words, wishing that he hadn't been so dense when he was younger.

**"They're what people believed in before there was science."**

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my name, which I never told anybody—**

"And for good reason," said Jackson grumbled quietly as the Stolls, Clarisse, and Leo all snickered quietly at his real first name. He hated that everyone always made fun of his name when they finally found out what it really was. It really sucked at school, during award ceremonies and such, when they called his name.

Annabeth frowned at those laughing, and turned to Percy. She cupped his cheek, and kissed him softly. "I think you're name's wonderful, Seaweed Brain," she said. "Very manly, not to mention tough."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?" he questioned. She smirked and nodded. Rolling up his sleeve slightly, Percy flexed his biceps, and a decent muscle bulge appeared. "Eh . . . sort of."

She laughed lightly before placing a hand on Percy's knee. "Just don't let it get to your head, Seaweed Brain."

"No promises."

**"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D c****ontinued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o**_** far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if . . . he wasn't.**

Connor sat up straight, with his left elbow bent at his waist, and his finger pointing up at the sky, as if he'd just had a 'Eureka!' moment. "Bing!" he exclaimed. "I spy a light bulb over someone's head."

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

"Yeah, thanks for the help, G-man," Percy said in a mock-sardonic voice.

Grover held his hands in surrender. "Sorry, Perce, but you know I don't exactly like conflict."

"Says the guy who started a panic almost a year ago," Nico interjected, making Grover blush, and Percy to give him a knowing look.

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you ma****y choose to believe it or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal**_** means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

"I can definitely imagine that first part," Percy mused aloud. Annabeth's hand unconsciously gravitated to Percy's only weak spot, the small of his back, making the boy shudder as some electric current pulsed through him.

Leo, however, was unaware of this, as he exclaimed, "Well, I'd love to be immortal. Forever dating hot immortal chicks for the rest of my life? Heck yeah!"

Piper put her head in her hands, and Jason grabbed the bridge of his nose while shaking his head at his best friend. "Oh, Leo," he said.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

Leo's smile faded into a twisted grimace. "Oh, right."

"Nice deduction, Sherlock Holmes," Thalia teased Percy, unaware of Leo's chagrin. "Didn't need Annabeth for that one."

"Sadly, Watson, he'll need her for everyone after that," intercepted Nico.

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I**** told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call **_**you**_** a myth, just crested to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

Jason cringed. "Ouch, Chiron. That one stung."

"I thought you were going to implode for a moment," Grover said to Percy, "before you got in control of your emotions again."

Percy nodded. "It's ironic now," he explained to the clearing. "How I actually do have my own myth now, even though I didn't become a god."

"Almost," Nico reminded him.

"Almost," Percy acknowledged.

Piper stared at him in wonder. "You _almost_ became a god?" she demanded. "How do you _almost_ become a god?"

"I'm pretty sure it'll be explained in the books, Piper," Percy told her, slightly scared of the powerful daughter of Aphrodite.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"And a good number of them _have_ tried," Katie added, smiling pleasantly at Percy, who just made a face at her.

**Grover said, "P-Please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card.**

Annabeth was taken aback. "How dare he say such a thing about Sally!" Turning on Percy, she asked, "And you didn't say anything about that?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "Although my self-preservation skills aren't highly tuned in situations like these, I didn't really want to die by interrupting Mr. D."

She "Harrumphed," but let it go.

**"Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet itself filled with red wine.**

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

"You actually did have that look on your face right there," Grover admitted. Percy made a face as several people in the clearing broke into laughter, and glared at the Stolls mimicking his so called "look".

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

Annabeth rolled her eyes, along with some of the other older campers at their director's antics. "And he always thinks he's going to just get away with that," she sighed.

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

"And it's weird to think of him doing that while Ariadne sat at home, laid back on the La-Z Boy, watching her soaps," Travis said.

Leo's eyes bulged. "Hold the enchiladas," he said. "This guy is married to Ariadne? Like, the girl who helped that sailor . . . uh, Theseus? I thought they got married?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Nope. Theseus abandoned her on an island, where Dionysus found her, and—"

"Jee, Wise Girl," Percy quickly interrupted, "thanks for that awesome historic fact, but I think it's explained in a later book. Continue, please, Nico." Ignoring Annabeth's irritated look, Percy made the "go on" gesture with his hands.

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years****! The second time—well, she really was pretty and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

The clearing burst into giggles and guffaws. "You better not let him find out that you said that, Percy," Grover warned, though it was hard to get out from laughing so hard.

"**And . . ."**** I stammered, "your father is . . ."**

"_**Di immortales**_**, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

"Wow, Fish Face, I'm surprised you remembered all of that," said Thalia. "And without any prompting from Annabeth. Very nice."

"Aw, shut your mouth, Stick Head," Percy retaliated. "I remember loads of stuff; it just doesn't always come at my beck and call. So deal with it."

"**You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"I've always wondered why they thought that wine was way more important than, say, Hestia's ideas," Percy whispered to Annabeth. "I mean, what's so great about wine?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's not _just_ about the wine, Seaweed Brain," she replied. "There are a lot of other factors to consider."

"Right."

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do the kids say, these days, Grover? Do they say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

"**Y-yes, Mr. D."**

"**Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"Hey!" cried Piper, much to the amusement of Jason and Leo, not to mention the others in the clearing. "I resent that!"

"He can't hear you, Beauty Queen," Leo snickered. "Besides, this was years ago. I doubt he'd remember this conversation."

"**You're a god."**

"Oh, dear," said Travis.

"**Yes, child."**

"This isn't going to end well," added Connor.

"**A god. You."**

"Really, Percy?" Nico questioned. "Did you want to die?"

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. **

"Are those the other variables to consider?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded her head smugly.

**I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straight jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

Chris gave a thumbs-up. "Way to be positive, Percy."

"**Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

"**No. No, sir."**

"And of course he's polite when his life is in danger," Rachel mumbled under her breath.

Grover heard her and snickered quietly into his palm, causing some weird looks from both Percy and Nico, who sat closest to him.

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"**Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"Typical," Annabeth snorted. "I could count on both of my hands the number of times that Mr. D has beaten Chiron at pinochle."

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

"**I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-a-long tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again**_**, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson."**

"Hey!" the Stoll brothers exclaimed. "He actually got your name right that time!"

Percy looked shocked. "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," he admitted. "That brings the total up to . . . three, I think. He really must care. He said that last part sarcastically.

"He definitely likes you more than us," the brothers said.

"_Everyone_ likes Percy better than you two," Annabeth sighed.

Thalia coughed. "Well," she said, "maybe not _everyone_ . . . Personally, I can't stand him, or them."

"Love you, too, Thals," said Percy, smiling at his friend.

"**And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

"**Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

"Sorry, G-man," Percy stated, noticing Grover's glare. "You looked like you were on your way to your own execution."

Grover deflated. "It sure felt like it," he admitted. "Read, please, Nico."

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been . . . ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

"Well," Jason said, "it looks like he got an early leave, at least in our time."

Nico shook his head. "It's still hard to believe that he's going to leave in only a few months. With him leaving, and Percy . . . ah, also leaving"—he had to word his statement carefully, otherwise they'd have another crying Annabeth on their hands—"this camp is going to be very unexciting."

"Not to mention depressing," Leo whispered, but everyone heard him. Annabeth bit her lip to keep from screaming in frustration; her boyfriend and best friend was going to be kidnapped by Christmas, and she could do nothing about it!

"**Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"And count on Percy to completely change the subject with a stupid question," Nico said. He read on before his annoyed cousin could retort.

"**Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

"**You mean the Greek gods are here? Like . . . in **_**America**_**?"**

"No, Prissy," drawled Clarisse in an overly non-helpful voice. "They're in the Arctic Circle."

"**Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

"**The what?"**

"Great, Percy, thanks," Connor groaned. "Now we're going to have to hear all about Western Civilization. Again!"

"Calm down, Connor," Katie sighed. "It's not like you remember it five minutes after hearing it. Now, hush, so we can finish."

"**Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western Civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years."**

"He really likes to compare that to candles, doesn't he?" Percy questioned Annabeth, who just smiled knowingly.

"**The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome.**

"Shut up, Jason," said Piper and Leo in sync. Jason smiled slightly, and a bit smug indeed. "Just remember that you guys didn't last nearly as long as the Greeks did," Piper added.

"**Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods."**

"**And then they died?"**

"**Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—**

Piper and Leo and Percy all laughed at Jason's affronted face when he heard what Chiron had said.

Thalia said, "Well, you have to admit, Jason, that Rome was definitely not well-liked in the hospitality region. Come one, they used to throw babies off of cliffs and leave them in the woods!"

Jason grimaced. "That's true, but it was still a great nation. And shall I remind you, sister dear, that Rome defeated the Greeks?"

"Look, now—" Thalia started, but Percy cut in.

"We are not having the Greek vs. Roman argument right now," he demanded, his voice leaving no room for adjustment. "Rome was every bit as good as Greece, and they were both conquered by others. Let it go."

The siblings dropped the subject. Piper and Leo were staring at Percy in shock; in their time, no one could break up an argument between those two without physical force, except for Piper, of course. But to see them obey Percy like he was . . . well, like he was a god.

Annabeth just looked at her boyfriend with a proud, yet smug look in her eyes. She loved it when he took charge like that. There was just something so . . . attractive about it.

—**America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here.**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we**_**, as if I were part of some club.**

Chris snorted. "Wow. You make it sound like generations of demigods and heroes are just a bunch of nerds at school that have no life."

"Well, Chris," Katie responded, "we technically don't have a life outside of this. We're completely devoted to being a demigod."

"**Who are you, Chiron?" **

"He's Chiron," said Travis, as if that cleared up everything.

"**Who . . . who am I?"**

"Nice dramatic pause there, Percy," Nico said, sarcastic. And to answer your question, to all of us, you are Perseus Jackson, Perseus, Percy Jackson, Percy—"

"Kelp Head," continued Thalia, "Jackson, Fish Face, Sea Urchin, Captain Crawfish, Fish Flakes, Dolphin Dung, Tuna Face—"

Annabeth added on: "Seaweed Brain, Savior of Olympus, Son of Poseidon, Child of one of the Big Three, my boyfriend—"

Grover chimed in, "Water Boy, Perce—"

"Don't forget Prissy," said Clarisse.

"You're also stubborn, caring, forgiving, sarcastic, pessimistic, fun loving, silly, idiotic, unbiased, annoying, irritating, moody," Katie went on.

"What else?" Rachel pretended to think.

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Percy exclaimed. He loved how highly his friends thought of him, but all of this attention was making him slightly uncomfortable.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"**Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"You mean he devours it," Annabeth snorted.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear—**

"Wait, Nico," Rachel said in disbelief. "I don't think I heard you right; could you repeat that last part?"

And as Nico repeated the last sentence, Percy's ears grew red as everyone in the clearing turned to stare at him, even Annabeth. Thinking back on it, that might not have been the most appropriate way to describe the event.

As Grover opened his mouth to say something, Percy spoke first, loudly, so he could be heard clearly: "That was years ago, and I was young, so nobody is allowed to say anything about it."

After a moment of silence, Annabeth's lips twitched into a smile as she said, "Nobody?"

Percy grinned at her and said, "Especially not Nobody. Understand?"

The two of them laughed at their inside joke while everyone stared at each other in confusion. Leo raised his hand in the air. "Am I the only one confused and lost here?"

"I'm with you, bro," Jason replied.

—**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than anyman, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under course white fur.**

Thalia started to clap loudly, and slowly at Percy's revelation. "Very nice, Kelp Head, very nice, indeed."

"Shut up, Pilot Pinecone."

**And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion.**

"I'm not sure Chiron would like that you are insinuating that he's fat," Connor stage-whispered to Percy. He merely rolled his eyes.

**But where it's neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"Duh, Percy," Travis said, using an over exaggerated voice "Horses don't have trunks. Only elephants and platypus do." Everyone gazed at him with very similar expressions of disbelief.

"Travis," Katie said, "were you born this stupid, or is it a gift that you had to work on?"

"**What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"And that's it," Nico said, closing the book, but leaving a finger to mark his place. "Who's reading next?"

"I'll do it," said Katie, when no one raised their hands or stepped forward. But before she could grab the book from Nico, a bright burst of light appeared, and blinded everyone in the clearing.

There was chaos as everyone stumbled over each other to stand straight up, and what only added to the confusion was everyone trying to draw their weapons. Percy, who already had Riptide out, shouted, "Everyone, stay where you are! Don't move!" He reached out to his left side, until he felt Annabeth's hand. "Grab hands so you don't get lost!"

Everyone did as he said and connected hands so that they made a sort of lopsided circle. "Percy, what's going on?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But we have to just wait it out, for right now. I don't think we're in any danger, though."

As if it were listening in on Percy's words, the bright light faded, as quickly as it had flared up. There was a general breath of relief as everyone got their bearings. Making a head count, Percy noticed something off in their numbers. He counted again. And again. And again.

"We've got two extra," he announced to the clearing, looking at the boy and girl standing right across from him. A black girl around thirteen with cinnamon-colored hair and golden eyes looked right at Percy. A larger Asian boy with a babyish face, but really big muscles stood next to the black girl. His body said that he was around sixteen, but his face contradicted itself. The boy was staring at everyone else.

The black girl stepped forward, towards Percy, and said, "Percy, it's us. Hazel and Frank. Don't tell me they've erased your memory _again_!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sooooooooooooooo . . . . . . I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and I know you're going to be expecting a lot of excuses. But I'm not giving you any. I know that I'm not really good at keeping promised dates, and I'm just really sorry that you guys had to wait so long for chapter that's barely 11, 500 words. It sucks, yes, I know this :). **

**Truthfully, I never thought my procrastinating side would do this for so long. I'm just so mad at myself for not getting this chapter out sooner so you guys could read it. Again, I apologize, and flamers can PM if you want to vent. I deserve it. I'm going to answer all reviews directly from now on, so you should all expect answers to your reviews later this week, if I've got time. Hurricane Issac has been absoluetly HORRIBLE here in Louisiana, and I'm just thankful that the worst we had to endure was no power for three days, and hot temps in the afternoon. Other families weren't so lucky.**

**On the plus side, I** **haven't had school since last Monday, for which I am VERY thankful for. Anyways, you guys should know that my new SYOC story had been deleted by FanFiction, but I'll be posting it back up as soon as possible. It's my stor so screw what the Admn has to say about it! There are other stories worse than mine that should be deleted and are not, though I don't know anyone who personally does have a story going against guidelines.**

**Have a great rest of your Labor Day, or what I like to call it, Lazy Day :)**


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